A Cornered Fox is More Dangerous Than a Jackal
by Kalfu
Summary: New Summary.Thrown into a world of mercenaries and criminals, Alex is under the tutelage of the famous assasin,Grey Fox,per Mr. Blunts orders. But Grey Fox wants Mr Blunt dead and is somehow connected to Alexs dad. Alex must choose where his loyalties lie
1. Prologue

Alex woke up in a bed. This wasn't all that unusual; Alex had often woken up in a bed, however this bed was not one he had _ever_ woken up in. He looked around him and rubbed his forehead. He was in a small room, there was a cabinet beside the table with a small photo of a man and a woman smiling and laughing and there was a glass of water beside that. On the other side of the room there was a window and outside the window he could see red sand and dried out plants.

Slowly, Alex remembered where he was; he had landed in Australia when he had re-entered the atmosphere. He must have fainted after that because he couldn't remember anything after that.

Just then, the door opened and a woman walked through with a tray that had a plate with a fry on it. She looked at him and stopped.

" Oh, G'day, mate." She said with a huge smile and a thick Australian accent. " I didn't realise you were awake just yet. Good thing I prepared you some breakfast, isn't it?"

She sat down at the edge of the bed and handed him the plate.

" Oh, by the way," She said cheerily, " I'm Lisa and I'd like to be the first to congratulate you on a great job you did."

" Thanks?" Alex said. He wasn't sure who exactly this Lisa was or how she knew about his job. He was about to ask when she held up her hand with another huge smile.

" Where is my head gone today? I should have told you, I work with MI6 and I've been posted here for nearly a year now. As soon as you began your descent back into earth's atmosphere, Alan Blunt called me up and filled me in. He wanted me to find you, collect you and send you back to London."

" Oh." Alex said and there was a moment's silence.

Lisa smiled and clapped her hands together. She stood up. " Well, I'll leave you to your breakfast. There's a change of clothes in the wardrobe over there." She motioned to the artless hunk of wood in the other corner of the room. " When you're ready, come outside. I'll be on the porch. Be quick as you can though, your flight leaves in two hours and the drive to the airport is three." She smiled and left the room.

Two hours later they were in the airport. Lisa had driven like crazy through the outback in her old and battered Range Rover, but she had gotten them to the airport safely and exactly on time. He was about to leave through the boarding bay when Lisa put her hand on his shoulder.

" Before you go…" Lisa said without a smile. She handed a bag to him. " Inside is two envelops; one has about thirty pounds (that's the one that has your name on it) you should use for a taxi when you get back to England. The other one has Alan Blunt's name on it; do not under _any_ circumstances open it. I want you to get the taxi to MI6 HQ before you do anything else, okay? This is really important, can I count on you?"

" Sure." Alex said with a shrug.

" I'll see you later then Alex. It was a pleasure to meet you, mate. Maybe I'll work with you some time."

She smiled again and Alex went through the boarding gates. Lisa stayed there for a while until the plane lifted off. An Asian man in a pilot's outfit walked past her slowly. As he got into hearing distance, he quickly whispered something to her in Japanese. She gave the slightest nod to show that she understood. The man walked on and she stood there with her arms crossed for another minute. The she took out her mobile phone, flipped it open and keyed in a number that was almost too well known to her.

" What?" The man's voice sounded gruff through the phone.

" The boy's on the plane. As soon as he lands I want you to be stuck to him, he should lead you to MI6 headquarters. Then you'll see that I was right."

The man on the other side chuckled deeply. " I'm sure you are absolutely right. You always are… but how did you find out where it was?"

She laughed in a breathless way. " The same way that I found out that your real name is Marvin." With that she hung up and put the phone in her trouser pocket. She turned and walked to the Quantis Airlines desk.

" How can I help you today, miss?" The woman at the desk asked with a smile.

" A one way ticket to Atlantis airport, please." She asked with a smile and with absolutely no hint of an Australian accent.

" Of course, just fill in this form." She handed over a piece of paper and a pen to her. She took it and started writing.

_First name?_

_Jill_

_Second name?_

_Green_

She filled out the rest of the form and handed it to the woman.

" Can I see your passport please?" She asked as her eyes quickly scanned the form.

" Certainly" She said cheerily and she handed her a passport under the name of Jill Green with her picture on it.

" Well then miss Green, I hope you enjoy your flight with Quantis Airlines."

" I'm sure I will." She said with a smile as she gathered her passport and her ticket. Her smile dropped the minute she turned and from that moment on, the methodical assassins mind could only think of the next and the last part of her plan. She didn't yet want to reveal the next part of her plan, even to herself. But the last part she had no qualms about; she wanted to get back at Alan Blunt.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the character's; Alex, Mr.Blunt and Mrs Jones however most of the other's will probably be my own.**

* * *

Chapter 1

Alex had done what Lisa had said to do; he got a taxi from the airport and went straight to Headquarters and up to Alan Blunt.

At that very moment, Alex was sitting in front of him and Mrs. Jones.

Alan Blunt was reading the letter that Lisa had given Alex back in Australia. His fingers seemed to be almost trembling and for the first time ever, Alex saw real anger distort the grey man's features. Mrs Jones was looking at the letter as well but instead of anger she just harboured a frown.

After a moment she looked away and shook her head. " This is most worrying…" She muttered to herself.

Mr. Blunt scanned the letter again and eventually he threw it on the desk as he leaned back in his chair, he sighed and rubbed his forehead.

" What are you going to do, Alan?" She asked and she sounded a bit worried.

When Mr. Blunt didn't answer, Alex decided that it was an opportune moment to speak.

" What's going on?" He asked and for a moment, he was sure that he wasn't going to get an answer. But eventually Mrs. Jones enlightened him.

" The woman who collected you isn't a MI6 agent. In fact, she is almost what you could call the enemy. She's a professional mercenary, a very dangerous one who is known as Grey Fox and it appears she knows more about us than we'd find comfortable." Alex took this information in but then considered something.

" If she's the enemy, why did she help me? She could have killed me easily."

Mr. Blunt answered this time. " She wanted to prove that she knew where we are situated. No doubt she had one of her friends to follow you, just so the rest of her world would know that she was telling the truth when she announced it." He sighed in frustration and ran his hand through his thinning hair.

" What will happen now that she knows where we are?" Alex asked looking between Mrs Jones and Mr Blunt. Although Alan Blunt didn't want to answer anymore and so he stood up and walked over to the window, his back to the room.

Mrs Jones looked at Alex with a look that tried to be reassuring. " I wouldn't worry too much, Alex. MI6 and Grey Fox have dealt together a lot of times and unless she has been hired by someone to destroy us, I don't think we have anything to worry about. But I'd say that you can leave now, Alex, you must be exhausted, I'll send for a taxi to drop you home."

A few minutes later Mrs Jones and Mr Blunt were in the office alone.

" What do you plan to do about Grey Fox?" Mrs Jones asked him. Mr Blunt didn't turn away from the window as he answered. " I don't think that anything I do would be any help. God knows that Grey Fox is one of the most stubborn people in the world, not to mention determined. You know as well as I do that if she's planning something there's nothing that we can do."

" You may have to meet with her." Mrs Jones said quietly, almost hoping that Alan didn't hear her. But he did and he turned around to face her. He laughed coldly and without humour. " I'd rather die." He said as he looked at her squarely.

She shot him a look of annoyance. " You know, you may do if you don't take some course of action. Grey Fox is dangerous and she hates you. You know she wants revenge for what happened; it would just be plain idiotic to presume that she's not going to do something that will end up in your death. Find out what's going on, Alan. You of all people should know that it's dangerous to underestimate her." With that, Mrs Jones left the room and left Mr. Blunt to his own thoughts. He walked back over to his desk and as his frustration reached its peak, he threw his fists on the desk so hard he made the wood bounce. By all means, Grey Fox should have been dead; all the odds had been stacked against her, even her own birth was a struggle for survival, but she had done it and against all the odds she was now the predator, the top of the food chain and now, as Mrs Jones had stressed, she appeared to be out for revenge.


	3. Chapter 2

It was the next Saturday, before Alex heard from MI6 again. He had gotten a phone call telling him that he needed to come into the headquarters.

And that was how Alex ended up sitting in Mr. Blunt's office again, much too early in his opinion. He studied his hands while waiting for Mr. Blunt to appear. Mrs. Jones was in the room too, looking at a document that was on the desk. She lifted up the first sheet and scanned it with a look of mild interest, the same kind, Alex noticed, that tourists had when they expected something a bit 'more' from a must-see landmark. Mrs. Jones was just looking at the document for something to do. She had read it before and there was nothing even mildly interesting in it, but she had continuously refused to answer Alex when he asked her why he was here and she was beginning to feel as uncomfortable as him.

Eventually Mr. Blunt came in and briskly walked to his desk. He looked at Alex and then at Mrs. Jones before he went back to Alex.

" As you know," He began, clasping his hands and resting them on the desk, "You have recently come into contact with the mercenary Grey Fox," Alex felt like rolling his eyes, talk about stating the obvious, " Now, it is not my intention to alarm you Alex, but in fact I have to admit that you are lucky to still be alive." He stopped for a moment to let this information sink in and to allow Alex to ask any questions, but none came, Alex was silent. Mr. Blunt looked at him for a moment and then continued, " Now, since Grey Fox has shown herself and has made her intentions clear, we have decided to take some course of action; I'm going to have to meet with her." Mr. Blunt opened his mouth to continue but Alex interrupted him.

" What has that got to do with me?"

This time Mrs. Jones answered. " Well, the thing is Alex, Grey Fox is known for her rash decisions and she hasn't exactly got the best name for being… 'Friendly' towards MI6 agents."

" So?" Alex asked, but he had a feeling he knew what was coming.

" We want- no we need you to come with us to meet her." Alan blunt said with such finality that no one moved for a moment until Alex stood up and said.

" No." He began to walk away when Mr. Blunt stopped him.

" You don't have a choice, Alex. You can't walk out that door." He said with his voice rising a little.

Alex glared at him. " Watch me." He said as he turned to face the door, but suddenly a bulky man appeared in front of him, blocking his exit. The next thing Alex knew was that there was a sharp pain in his neck and he saw the glint of the needle before he passed out.

Alex woke up with a sore head, hours later. He looked around him to find that he wasn't at home. Nor was he alone for that matter and more than that; it didn't seem he was on the ground either.

He was in a private jet, sitting near Mr. Blunt and Mrs Jones. He sighed feeling frustrated and helpless. He hated the way they treated him and they made him so angry sometimes… however, Alex noticed with a bit of shame, this wasn't one of those times; he didn't feel angry at all. He felt tired and weary and at that moment it occurred to him that he didn't want to do this anymore.

" Where are we headed?" He asked after a moment when his return to consciousness continued to go unnoticed.

Mrs. Jones looked up in surprise for a moment. " America. New York to be exact."

" Does Grey Fox live there?" He asked, not really interested but unsure of what he would occupy himself with if he stopped talking.

" No. But a very close friend of hers does and she spends a lot of time there."

" What if she's not there?"

" Then we'll ask around and look for her elsewhere."

" If you have a good idea where she is, why meet in person? Why not over the phone?" Alex asked when he decided that this whole situation was ridiculous and unnecessary.

Alan Blunt looked up from the book he was reading. " It's because she hates modern technology for the most part and she wouldn't listen to us if we did."

That raised another question. " Why does she hate technology?"

At this Mr. Blunt sighed and closed his book, his finger held in between the pages to keep his place, he looked up at Alex and met him squarely in the eye, giving him a look that he couldn't quite interpret. " There had been a long history of insanity in Grey Fox's family, especially on her mother's side. And taking her lineage into consideration I think that we have answered the question."

He opened his book again and began reading while Mrs. Jones busied herself by pouring a drink form the small drinks cabinet.

Alex sighed and looked out the window. All he could see through the clouds was water. It was very possible that this journey would be most painful.

Against his expectations Alex began to feel sleepy again and just before he drifted away he felt a stone of uneasiness lodge itself in his stomach. Another crazy person to deal with, perfect…


	4. Chapter 3

The Spider's Parlour was a small bar on Essex Street near Steward Park in New York. It was a place that Alex had never imagined himself in; on the outside the building looked a smidgeon dilapidated and the inside was anything but. Alex was surprised at the contrast of light from the bright outside to the almost complete initial darkness inside. After Alex's eyes adjusted to the change of light, he was surprised to find that the place was actually quite nicely furnished. The theme of the place seemed to be red, lush royal red carpet for half of the room where all the tables and chairs were and dark red wood flooring for the other half where the bar was and it and all the furniture seemed to be dark red wood. The walls were also a shade of dark red and there were tapestries and curtains by the doors were also red. The whole monochromatic effect actually seemed to work but was somehow ruined by the black grand piano on a small stage at the other end of the room.

Alex looked around as he followed Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones. There were a few people littered around the room and while none of them looked very friendly, he remembered that two of them were MI6 agents who had gone in twenty minutes previously with a few minutes gap between them.

As they passed the bar a huge black man with muscles the size of his head spoke from behind the counter.

" What are you doing here?" He growled at Mr. Blunt with a slight touch of a French accent.

Alan Blunt just continued walking towards a table in the far corner of the room, Alex frowned but both he and Mrs. Jones followed. They sat down at the table and heard the man bang a glass onto the counter, and walk to a room beside the bar. He was gone a few minutes and all the while no one spoke anywhere in the room.

Alex wondered what exactly was going on, but didn't say anything; the silence was too heavy to try to lift.

Eventually the man came back out and threw a dark look over in their direction. He continued on with his work.

And a moment later, the woman he had previously known as Lisa strode into the room. Though Alex barely recognised her because everything about her seemed different. Instead of that well meaning smile that had been constantly plastered on Lisa's face, there was a thin line of her mouth and her eyes were no longer alight with good humour but were now as cold as any killer's.

She strode over to the trio, her eyes plastered on Alan Blunt. She looked extremely dangerous as she sat down on a spare chair by the table with a meticulously straight back. She crossed her legs and kept her lips firmly pursed. Alex noticed how she didn't seem to move a single muscle until Mrs. Jones finally stopped the silence.

" It's been a long time since I've seen you last. How are things?" She asked politely with a soft voice as she opened a mint wrapper and put one in her mouth.

Grey Fox's eyes never left Alan Blunt as her lips twitched upwards. " Better than Alan, I would believe." She said with a ghost of a Russian accent and then laughed as she saw the reaction from Mr. Blunt. " Careful, Alan," She warned as her smirk grew, " Old men your age are susceptible to high blood pressure."

" While little girls your age are susceptible to end up being found on a river bank with a plastic bag tied around their necks." He hissed in a way that Alex had never heard before. Alex blinked in disbelief; he had never seen Mr. Blunt react that way to anything or anyone before.

Her smile widened as she leaned in closer; like a predator going in for prey. " You'd have to be a real coward to kill a 'little girl' that way. I don't suppose you were suggesting anything, were you?"

Mr. Blunt was about to say something when Mrs. Jones held up her hand and spoke in a strong voice. " It's about time that both of you stop bickering like children and get to the matter at hand. There is no point in going for each other's throats when it's not going to help us with the matter that's at hand."

Grey Fox tore her eyes off of Mr. Blunt for the first time and nodded at Mrs. Jones. Mr. Blunt sighed quietly as he rubbed his forehead discreetly.

Alex noticed that Grey Fox was looking at him. She nodded in a greeting. " Hey, Kid."

" Hi." Alex said a little uncomfortably.

" Well then, what did you want to see me about?" Grey Fox said as she leaned back in her chair crossing her arms as well.

" You know." Mr. Blunt said accusingly in a harsh voice.

Grey Fox looked at him blankly, " No, I have no idea."

" We want you to help us." Mrs. Jones said quickly, interjecting the fight that was about to break out. " We want to hire you."

Grey Fox eyed them suspiciously for a moment. " Which of my skills would you want to hire?"

Mr. Blunt took out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and put it on the table. He pushed it over to her, intending for her to pick it up but she just looked at him stonily and repeated the question.

Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones looked at each other very quickly and then looked back at the young woman.

" We want you to pass on your skills." Mr. Blunt said finally after he cleared his throat.

Grey Fox raised her eye brow into a high arch, " Oh really? And to whom would you wish me to pass my legacy unto."

Alan Blunt indicated to Alex with a nod with his head and Grey Fox threw back her head and laughed with vehemence, it was a cold, chilling noise that sounded unnecessary harsh. Alex stiffened at this new news and looked at the two agents but they didn't give him any acknowledgement. Grey Fox started speaking, her eyes flickered to Alex as she noted the reaction. " I suppose that if you actually use a teenaged boy to do espionage then it's the next logical step to get him properly trained…" Her voice faded as considered something for a moment. " Tell me, Alan, why _did_ you ask me?"

" It's not important. Will you do it?" He pushed the almost forgotten piece of paper nearer to her.

She looked at it as if it were some rare disease before picking it up. She looked at the paper, then at Alan and then at the paper once more. The sum of money on the page was a ridiculous amount that even made even Grey Fox do a double take.

" Will you do it?" Mrs. Jones asked imploringly.

Grey Fox stiffened and bristled with seemingly unreasonable fury. " _Nyet_!" She said with passion she rarely seemed to show. She stopped herself before she continued and with soft concentration she continued again in English, annoyed that she had slipped out of it. " No." She corrected herself, " There's not a chance."

Anger splayed itself across Mr. Blunt's features, " And why not? There's more than enough money, so why?"

The two stared to stare at each other for a long time again, until Grey Fox suddenly sighed and rolled her eyes. " _Because,_ Alan, unless you're intelligence has gotten it wrong—_again_, you will know that I am ill, that I have been ill for quite some time _and_ that by this time next year I will quite probably be dead. You ask me why I turn it down?" She snorted in dark amusement and then leaned forward, her voice was low. " I refuse to waste _my_ last days on this world for you, the very man that has had a price on my head for half my life and has tried to get rid of me for the rest of it-- Leave now." She commanded and she rose from her seat. She went to leave, taking two steps before Alan Blunt calling after her stopped her abruptly.

" So you don't care about finding _him_ then?" He called after her, Alex knew by the gleam in his eye that he just played his trump card.

Grey Fox stiffly turned; her eyes were narrowed as she gazed evenly at Alan.

" What?" She asked and her voice held a very dangerous tone.

" You heard me." Mr. Blunt answered he too was on alert as the next round of their little battle continued. Grey Fox strode back to the chair and sat down again with her own natural grace.

Her eyes were darker and more dangerous than Alex could have imagined. " You just have to do it don't you? Every time I think we can part ways without blood spilling, you go ahead and ask for it. Stop with your lies and leave before you get hurt. Every man in here is armed and willing to kill, we know about your two agents in the corner there and they _will_ be killed before they can draw their guns-- Leave, this is your last chance."

Alex started to rise; he couldn't imagine how such a short sentence could have instigated such an aggressive outburst but he didn't care and he wasn't risking his neck for MI6, not again, not because Mr. Blunt was adamant about annoying a professional killer.

" Sit down, Alex." Mr. Blunt said sternly and then addressed Grey Fox again. " I'm not lying, we have evidence. Our information isn't a lot but it may be what you need." Mr. Blunt pulled out a photograph from his suit pocket and gave it to her. Alex couldn't see what was on it but it must have been something very important because Grey Fox's breath hitched. She lay the photograph face down on the table and sighed, closing her eyes as she bit her lip.

" Alex." She said looking at him, " Are you a willing participant in this or has he forced you here?"

Alex was surprised that he was actually given an opinion in this and so he instinctively looked to the only two people he knew as he considered what he should say. Of course he didn't want to be holed up with some crazy killer… but then, there was the threat of sending him into an orphanage. Something he certainly didn't want. Alex suppressed a groan. This really wasn't fair; he hated the way Mr. Blunt forced him into this life. He didn't really have a choice about this, he never did.

" Okay." He said, somewhat reluctantly.

But Grey Fox continued to study him, knowing something wasn't quite right.

" Alright." She said finally, as she took her eyes off of Alex " Give me the Information and half of the original price and we'll have a deal."

Alan Blunt nodded and Mrs. Jones seemed to sag in relief as she held out her right hand.

Mr. Blunt took it and they shook.


	5. Chapter 4

Mrs. Jones and Mr. Blunt were back in the MI6 Headquarters in England. Mrs. Jones had been waiting for her associate in the office when he had come back from lunch and was mildly annoyed when he immediately figured out what it was that she had wanted to see him about, he always knew that when she had _that_ look, it could only mean one thing; Alex Rider. It had been almost a month since they had come back from New York leaving the teen spy behind and Mrs. Jones had been less then happy since then. Alan knew that she had always been against using Alex and it had become even more obvious after every mission he had been through, but this time, Mr. Blunt had noticed with a sigh, this time was really the worst. Mrs. Jones had more than absolutely disproved of this and the thought that she would be leaving a young man, who sometimes reminded her too much of her own children, with an assassin who had a particular name for sadistic acts and who had a particular disliking for the man who the young lad was working for… well, that was too much for her too handle.

Mr. Blunt sometimes didn't understand women. It was for the good of the company, for the good of England and yet, she was unwilling to sacrifice the comfort of one boy who held so much potential. In Alan Blunt's book, that was almost unfathomable, almost unforgivable.

" It's just not right." Mrs. Jones had said as she shook her head, almost as if she was hoping that the emphasis would make him see her view. " A boy his age shouldn't be in that environment."

Mr. Blunt had laughed when he thought of all the times Mrs. Jones must have said that about each and every mission.

" And Grey Fox isn't even the worst threat to him; she'll keep her end of the bargain sure enough, if even only for the money, but what about the others; the woman from Peru, the man from Brussels and most worryingly, the young man who is utterly infatuated with her? He is definitely the worst, you know as well as I that he must be at least slightly mentally instable… The things he's done…" Mrs. Jones had trailed of then as she thought about quite how horrific the 'incident' involving him really was.

Mr. Blunt had tried to argue with her then, pointing out the _very_ good pros about the said topic, making sure to leave out any of the cons. However, Mrs. Jones was just as stubborn as he was when it came to this particular subject and would not relent, as she so adequately displayed with an exasperated sigh as she threw her eyes up to heaven and then made distance between herself and Alan. As she stared out the window she had contemplated keeping her mouth shut, but she just was _not_ ready to let this go. She had turned to Mr. Blunt, who, at this stage had settled himself in his chair and had begun to get back to the paper work he had left unfinished before lunch.

" Well, at least let there be one of the agents with him? Grey Fox won't mind… not really and then we can make sure that Alex is alright."

Alan Blunt had sighed then with annoyance and put his pen down with a dull thump on the paper. He had turned to Mrs. Jones with a dark glare.

" You are being idiotic now. You think that Grey Fox wouldn't mind having another agent? She'd probably kill the poor man out of spite; she'd probably see it as a perceived incompetence on her part. She may very well kill Alex, too."

" And what about if she tells him why there's so much bad blood between you too? Would you not want someone there to defend your side?" Mrs. Jones challenged, then.

Mr. Blunt was quiet then. " No," He had said finally, " Grey Fox would never mention that. It was a situation where she had been out of control; it would be an embarrassment for her." With that Mr. Blunt continued with his work and Mrs. Jones stared out the window. And that was the course of events that led to the present.

A knock on the door caused Mr. Blunt to let out a breath in relief. " Come in." He said as he put down the pen and composed himself as the door opened and revealed a man in a dark grey suit. Mrs. Jones vaguely recognised him as a new recruit and she quickly excused herself. She was glad to be able to leave, she had not wanted to appear to have lost to Alan, but she really felt slightly upset that she hadn't been able to be a proper help to Alex. Mrs. Jones frowned as she popped a mint into her mouth. She walked down the corridor as she contemplated how she was going to get it through to Alan. But one thing was indefinitely decided; she was going to help Alex, whenever and however she could. Even if the help was only minimal and possibly insubstantial.

" Alex! Remember that thing we discussed? Yeah, it's called fighting! That's what we're supposed to be doing here. What the hell was that?" Grey Fox roared from a few feet away at Alex who was, at that precise moment, on the ground. Grey Fox was good, scarily good, when it came to fighting. Alex usually had the advantage of surprise when he fought. Who would expect a fourteen-year-old boy to be that skilled in martial arts after all? Well… apparently Grey Fox. Still, as Alex pulled himself off the ground he couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed; Grey Fox had seemed to soften the moment Alan Blunt had gone. She had been nice enough to him as she introduced him to the rest of her 'team' as she put it. It was one of the nice terms for the group of people who she used and worked with on assassinations and other criminal activities, even though they didn't all appear to be exactly like Alex would have pictured from his previous encounters with such people. Grey Fox had been completely civil to him and he had actually begun to feel like she was not the cold-hearted killer he had known her to be.

But then, the training had begun and Alex found that Grey Fox could change from pleasant and civil to deadly and downright scary in a matter of moments.

Alex steadied himself on his feet for a minute, looking a little woozy but he quickly shook it off. He would not give up on this. In spite of it all, he kind of wanted to impress Grey Fox, even though she did seem hard to please.

A ghost of a smile graced Grey Fox's face for a brief flicker and then, as suddenly as it left, Grey Fox lunged at Alex.

Some time later, Alex sat at the bar counter, sullenly rolling a half glass of coke between his hands. He was sure he had managed to bruise his ribs and his ankle was killing him from where he had gone over on it. The barman, a huge Nigerian native born with a French accent and muscles the size of his head, was working at the other end. The man, Alex had found out, was known as Hawk and despite the scary appearance of the man, he was actually the one and only person that Alex actually likes and trusted. Hawk had once told him that he had known Grey Fox for years and while he was older than her by a good five years, he was utterly content to be her right hand man, aided her without fail whenever she went on any mission. He had even risked his life for her, just as she had, apparently, risked hers for him, though Alex had some trouble believing that at the time. Hawk had told him that he was now semi retired; he was still her right hand man, however, he no longer went on missions or most kinds of assignments with her. And why? Well, at that point Hawk had smiled with a twinkle in his eye and instead of saying anything, he took out a folded photograph of a little girl, no older than five, looking into the camera with a joyous smile, with her arms around a golden retriever whose name could be clearly seen as Toto on a red collar around his neck.

At that moment, Hawk was cleaning a pint glass with an off white tea towel.

" She tries to act mean," Hawk said knowingly as he inspected the glass, " But she's really a sweetheart underneath all that tough I-hate-everything act. I've worked with her for years and trust me, I know when she has a soft spot for a newbie."

Alex looked up from his coke. " What?" He said in confusion, seemingly more confused that he was being spoken to, rather than what Hawk was saying. He didn't believe for a second what he was saying. Confusion really didn't come into it, disbelief, however, did.

" Yeah, believe it or not but she respects you. Probably quite fond of you too."

" Oh, How'd you figure that?" Alex asked as he downed half of his drink. There was laughter in Hawk's eyes as he tapped his temple with his index finger twice. " Because she took you on." Alex scoffed at this but said nothing, though he was thinking back to the apparently hefty price Mr. Blunt had paid for his tutelage.

Hawk raised his eyebrow. " You don't trust me? Let me assure you; no amount of money would prompt Fox to do anything for Mr. Blunt unless she had a personal interest in it." He paused and pointed at the teen, " And you Alex, are the interest in this little charade."

Alex considered this and then nodded slowly as it made some sense in his mind. It was then Alex decided to ask a question that was bothering him since he had first heard the name Grey Fox. " What's the deal between her and Mr. Blunt?"

Hawk immediately stiffened and his expression hardened. He stopped working and spoke very slowly and clearly, as if Alex was a kid. " Never. Ever. Ask that question. It won't do you any good. If Grey Fox does not talk about it, you don't even think about it. Clear?" He asked and suddenly seemed a teeny bit more intimidating than Alex had seen him before.

Alex nodded with his muscles stiffened. One thing Grey Fox had mentioned in the first training session was to always be alert and ready to either pounce of flee. Alex could see why.

The air between them was tense for a moment before Hawk sighed and began working again.

" You should probably go see her, actually. I'd say she's about ready to get going."

Alex nodded again and jumped off the chair and made his way to the back rooms. There were five back rooms actually, all of them along a corridor beside the bar. The first room was the training room, where Alex had spent most of his time; the next was a 'meeting' room in which Grey Fox was adamant that he never enter without her, after that, the storage room where the mops and brushes were kept. Then there was Hawk's personal office and finally, there was Grey Fox's office. As Alex walked down the corridor he could just about hear muted voices. One of which was recognisably Grey Fox. As he got closer to the door he slowed down and sneaked closer, all the while being as quiet as he possibly could.

He heard a woman's voice, and he knew that it was the voice of the lady from Peru, Mila, her name was.

" So, what do you think about him, then?" She asked lazily and the sound of a chair creaking indicated that she had leaned back on it.

" Alex?" There was a pause, " Not much to tell, I suppose." The sound of a pen on paper, she was obviously writing something.

" Come on, don't give me that." Mila implored.

Grey Fox sighed with annoyance but after another silence, Alex could tell that she really was considering the question.

" He has potential." She said finally. " A lot of potential…"

" But?" Mila coaxed.

" But he's a kid. I--"

" –Have taught younger than him." Mila interrupted.

" True… But he doesn't want to be here. I know he agreed to it, but I don't think he had that much of a choice."

" You think Mr. MI6 bribed him?" Mila asked curiously.

" Bribed?" Grey Fox asked incredulously. " More like threatened, I'd say. He's John Rider's son. He's an orphan."

The sound of a chair creaking was heard again as Mila leaned forward. " John Rider? The John Rider, the Scorpia John Rider?"

" The one and only."

There was silence for a long time and while Alex knew it was a bad idea, he just had to find out what Grey Fox knew about his father. Did she meet him? She would have been young, but it wasn't impossible to believe it. So he stayed outside the door and waited for them to speak again.

" But would you take him in, if he was willing?" Mila asked again.

" He is not, and this is a pointless conversation." Grey Fox said abruptly.

" Humour me." Mila asked simply.

Grey fox sighed, but it wasn't in anger or frustration, it was soft, as if she were tired. "Yes. I would." She said confidently, " In a second."

" Will you ask him to become your protégée? Not just your mission?" Mila asked quietly, hopefully.

Alex leaned closer to the door, to hear better. From behind it Alex could hear Grey Fox take a breath. "I--" She began to say but before Alex could hear what was coming, he heard a _very_ loud growl, inches away from him. Even before Alex turned, he knew that it was bad news.


	6. Chapter 5

_Canis Lupis_, also known as the Grey Wolf, or the Timber wolf is approximately 135 pounds and the shoulder height is around 36 inches. Now, Alex realised this was big when he had read about it a few years ago in class, after the teacher had decided to do a project on endangered species in Europe. But it wasn't until he saw one that he fully appreciated how big it truly was. As Alex turned around to the sound of a growl, he knew exactly what was waiting for him, and that huge mass of steel grey and white hair that was now growling with a painful volume was sometimes known as 'Red'. Red was Grey Fox's pet wolf and for a creature that is supposedly difficult to tame, Alex personally felt that Fox had done a bloody good job; Red was a better guard dog than any other. Alex almost kicked himself for forgetting about the monstrously sized canine that was always near his master. Indeed it seemed that no matter where Grey Fox would go, Red was close behind.

" Easy." Alex said softly to the wolf that now had his teeth bared in a malicious snarl.

" Red?" The voice came from the office and was easily recognised as Grey Fox's. Red immediately yipped and then became docile as he brushed past Alex and trotted into the office by pushing the door open with his snout. " Alex, it's rude to eavesdrop, get in here." He also heard Grey Fox say and with more than a little embarrassment, he made his way into the small office. Inside the office Grey Fox was looking at him with ever-sharp eyes as she mindlessly scratched her pet around the neck. The wolf's eyes were half closed in pleasure though he did manage a bark of discontent at Alex when he appeared in the doorway. Grey Fox muttered a 'no' to him without looking and instead kept her full attention on Alex.

" What were you doing?" She asked, though she held a little amusement in her voice.

" Hawk told me to come down, he said you'd probably want to see me." He said without any emotion, though he wondered how the assassin in front of him would react.

" Hmm, he was right. But that's not exactly what I meant." She gave him a knowing smile as she began to look for something in the drawer of her desk. " How much did you hear, then?" She asked.

Alex, keeping a keen eye on what Grey Fox's hand was doing as he answered. " Not much, I really just arrived when you realised I was there."

Grey Fox smirked, and her eyes flickered up to his. " So the question is; when did I realise you were there?" She asked but didn't wait for the answer as she pocketed something and stood up. " Well, come on then. I finished here for the night." Red got up with her and walked out of the room ahead of her.

" See you tomorrow, Mila." Grey Fox said as she too made her way out of the room. Mila saluted both her and Alex casually with a smile as the two of them left.

Grey Fox had an apartment in the city. Alex didn't know what he had expected when he had seen her apartment for the first time, but it wasn't anything like it was. The apartment was very modern; huge windows all around let in a great amount of light, though (as Grey Fox had assured him), there was no need for alarm because they were all bullet proof. There was also art in the apartment, long paintings and sculptures that held little to no resemblance to what their names depicted. Aside from that, there was furniture splayed around the place 'artistically', but Alex knew that Grey Fox had done it purely for convenience sake if someone broke in and made an attempt on her life that she could fight without worrying about knocking into something. Finally, and this surprised Alex the most, there were musical instruments all over the apartment; there was a piano in the corner of the living room, a cello in the hall, a harmonica in the cupboards in the kitchen and Alex thought he might have seen a guitar when he passed by Grey Fox's bedroom on his way to his own. But when he had asked about the surprising amount of instruments, Grey Fox assured him with a fierce intensity that she didn't play any and that they were there, purely for keeping up appearances. She had then gone on to say something about people thinking she was a musiCane or something of that sort, she said that she left it vague on purpose.

Despite it's weirdness, Alex was glad when they reached the apartment, he was tired and the guest bed was one of the comfiest things he had ever had the pleasure of sleeping on which was an oddity when it came to missions. He usually steeled himself up for a nap involving handcuffs, a radiator and a nice portion of first-thing-in-the-morning torture. Alex realised that things could have gone a lot worse.

Grey Fox was humming a tune to herself merrily as she rummaged in her pockets looking for the key. Red sat obediently at her feet and waited patiently for her to open to door. When she finally did extract the keys from her heavy coat, she put them into the keyhole and twiddled it a bit until it opened and she swung it open. Red's ears picked up just as Grey Fox hunkered down to collect the mail that had come through the mail box and Grey Fox stiffened and looked over at her companion. Red let out a quiet growl and Fox looked at Alex with her finger on her lip and motioning him to stay where he was. She gracefully rose and with the elegance of a cat, she began to stalk into the darkened apartment with a knife loosely twirling in her hand.

There were a few moments when nothing could be heard and Alex looked down at Red, who seemed to be listening intensely for any sounds at all. Alex suddenly felt that he wanted to do something. He wasn't sure what Red had heard and he could only guess why Grey Fox had reacted so suddenly to Red sensing whatever he had, but it made him feel a little left out though he hated to admit it and he found that he really _wanted_ to do something. Alex had never kid himself; he knew he wasn't the best trained spy and he knew that he didn't know half the stuff most of the agents in the world knew but he had always taken a certain amount of pride in being able to keep up with the tempo. But this was different, there was only small things that he noticed with people, but for the first time Alex really felt that he had gotten deeper than he knew existed. It was almost out of his reach and he wondered why it hadn't occurred to him before he came on this mission. Then again, it hadn't really been pointed out to him until Grey Fox had told him " Welcome to the Underworld." all that time ago.

It was another moment before Alex heard anything, but even before then, Red stood up and began to inch forward, seemingly trying to make up his mind whether to stay and disobey his master or to go inside. It was then when Alex himself heard a loud bang and Grey Fox shout. Without thinking, he let the training from his previous missions take over and he ran into the apartment, the wolf followed after. Alex sprinted into the living room and skidded to a halt to see Grey Fox looking rather annoyed. He followed his mentor's gaze across the room to a man, standing there with a smirk on his face. The man was roughly around Grey Fox's age and though he was young, there was evidence of greyness within his hair. There was a lamp beside the man's feet and Alex deduced that she had just thrown it at him.

" Honestly, keep this up and I might think that you're not happy to see me…" He drawled as he lit a cigarette and took a puff.

Grey Fox scowled as she strode over to him and took it out of his mouth. She put it out on his coat, to which he grimaced and she threw it in a bin near the wall.

" What are you doing here, Cane?" She demanded as she took a step away from her.

" What? No kiss?" He asked and then saw Alex. " Who's the kid?"

" Alex Rider. He's under my tutelage. Now, answer my question."

"Rider? Name seems familiar…" Cane wondered aloud.

" It should. Now answer me, what are you doing here?" Grey Fox said. She crossed her arms and waited patiently.

Cane took one last look at Alex before looking at Red. " I see you still have the dog." He said distastefully. Red growled and moved closer to Grey Fox.

" Cane…" She warned.

Cane looked around and then sighed. " Aren't you going to invite me to stay?"

" Nope. Not until you tell me what you're doing here. And I'd advise you to answer quickly, my patience is wearing and I'm not opposed to removing parts of you when you're acting like this." She thumbed the blade as she spoke and it seemed to work because the man, Cane, finally answered.

" Ever hear of Evergreen Bank?" He asked.

Grey Fox frowned and then nodded.

" Well, I think I may have a job for you."


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider but I do own everyone else.**

** By the way. I've never been to New York, I know very little of it's police force and I've never robbed a bank. So, please excuse any wrongness that is present in this story. Thanks**

The next morning Alex came into the kitchen to find Grey Fox with a scowl on her face as she intently looked over a set of blue prints that were spread across the counter while she was eating her breakfast, which consisted of a plain piece of toast, mindlessly. She didn't look up as Alex entered and he worked around her to make his own breakfast. Alex continued on as if she wasn't there either. He sat at the table and began to eat his cereal. A few minutes later, Cane came in dripping wet and wearing nothing but his boxers. Grey Fox spared a glance before returning to what she was doing but with her scowl more pronounced. When the man looked like he was going to get settled down to breakfast, Grey Fox turned and snarled at him.

" Go get some clothes on." She said with annoyance, her accent was slightly more obvious than usual and she turned back to her work. " And get that stupid grin off of your face." She called after him as the man mumbled something that sounded like it rhymed with the phrase 'Clucking Bell' and left the room. When the sound of his footsteps faded away, Grey Fox turned to Alex and sat down opposite him at the table. " Don't worry," She told him with an almost apologetic smile. " He won't be here long. As soon as we finish this job, I'll kick him out."

" I'm coming with you on this _job_?" Alex asked.

Grey Fox let out a good-humoured laugh. " Of course, how else are you going to learn?"

Alex frowned. He had still to find out what the job was exactly and from what he knew about Grey Fox and her _work_, it usually involved people getting hurt-badly.

" What kind of job is it?" Alex asked though he wasn't expected for her to tell him.

Grey Fox tapped her temple with her index finger and leaned in closer to Alex.

" It's a good one, I swear." She whispered across the table. " It's a bank robbery."

" A bank robbery?" Alex echoed.

Grey Fox nodded curtly as she seemed to switch to her business face. " Evergreen Bank. It's one of the most secured banks in the city. However, it has one or two major flaws." She explained with a little smile and Alex couldn't help but wonder if it was wrong to enjoy a job as much as Grey Fox did. " The worst is that it shuts at nine o'clock every night. Now I'm not just talking about lights off, I mean a complete lockdown, every two metres has iron walls so thick that nothing can get through. It's almost impossible to get into the bank itself without not only alerting the authorities but getting yourself a one way ticket to the nearest maximum security prison." A small smirk appeared on Grey Fox's face. " Normally, this would be a problem. But thanks to the next flaw in the system, it's no such thing." As she was speaking Cane came back in to the room, this time fully dressed and he sat down to listen in to the conversation. " The whole bank," Grey Fox explained, " Is run by computers. The security lock down has to be sent through the main system and so, as you can imagine; the signal can be blocked. That's how we're going to get into the bank. Unfortunately, that's the easy part. But no matter, we'll pull through," She said as she looked over at Cane, " we always do in these things."

Grey Fox looked back to Alex, " Anyway, this whole job requires someone who's a computer whiz. I, unfortunately, can do little more than download illegal music off of mine, let alone hack into a bank's mainframe so you and me are going to go on a little visit to a good friend of mine." She got up and started to roll up the blue prints of the bank. Cane followed her with his eyes.

" You want me to come?" He asked as he stretched in his chair. Grey Fox grinned and looked over her shoulder.

" After what happened last time?" She said with a laugh, " I think he'd probably shoot _himself_ before we even opened the door. No, I think it's best he doesn't know you're involved until after I've got him on board."

" Suit yourself." Cane drawled lazily, " It's just as well, I suppose, I've got stuff of my own that I have to do." He got up and left the kitchen.

Grey Fox turned to Alex, " Alright kid, let's go."

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The hacker's building was old and smelt a bit funny. But either Grey Fox didn't notice or she didn't care as they took the stairs (because the lift was broken) up to the fifth floor. While Grey Fox didn't care about the dilapidation herself she did notice that Alex seemed to be looking around.

" A lot of people in the business like to live in places like these," She explained in a quiet voice, so that no one might be listening would hear. " It keeps them on a low profile, you know? Also, you'll find a lot of people who will live in flats that have very old, or slightly out of touch people as the super. It's handy to have someone who can't clearly say if you were in the building or not at a certain time. In places like these though," She gestured around with her hand, " No one cares; it saves time in befriending old ladies and telling them about your whereabouts. It's important to know these things," She told Alex, " after all, half the underworld probably lives in buildings like these and if you ever have to find someone; this is the type of place you'd want to look out for."

" But you don't live in a place like this." Alex pointed out quite rightly.

Grey Fox smiled, " True enough." She agreed, " But I prefer the nice places, even if it's a lot more work to maintain. Besides, not many people know who I am or what I look like so I don't have to take quite as many precautions."

They walked in silence until they got to the fifth floor. Grey Fox walked down the corridor, passing by numerous doors that were in various states of disintegration. They finally came to one of the last doors down the corridor and Grey Fox stopped at it.

" When you're dealing with someone like Stevie here, you have to be particularly tactful." She told him as she knocked on the door.

Behind the door, Alex could hear a muffled voice telling them that he was coming. The door opened and the man, who was know to be known as Stevie took a look at Alex then at Grey Fox, paled and shut the door in their faces with a slam.

Grey Fox looked mildly agitated but made no move. " That was rude…" She muttered to herself and she took a deep breath.

She took a step backwards. " Okay. Tactful time is over." She said as the annoyance finally showed quite plainly on her face. She brought her leg up and kicked the door in. The hinges creaked under the strain and then snapped as the door swung somewhat lopsidedly open and then fell to the ground.

" Stevie." Grey Fox said sternly as she walked into the flat. Alex followed. " Stevie!" Grey Fox called out again as she wandered through the house. They eventually found the hacker in his bedroom, fumbling with his gun, trying to make himself look fierce. Grey Fox raised her eyebrows in amusement and her mouth quirked up into a lopsided grin that she seemingly tried, and failed, to hide.

" Gunplay," She told Stevie with the amusement obvious in her voice, " Is two thirds about acting. And Stevie, you ain't no actor. Put the gun down and we can talk like _civilised_ human beings."

" There's nothing civilised about killing people." He spat at Grey Fox in an attempt to insult her, but the woman's grin just grew.

" On the contrary." She said cheerfully, " It's been the one thing that all the great civilisations of the world since the dawn of time have been doing; I'm just following their legacy. It is however, unfortunate that you are unable to do so. You must feel so left out, being unable to pull the trigger." She goaded him, which succeeded quite brilliantly as the slightly porcine-like man turned a shade of pink.

" Watch me." He snarled and he pulled the trigger.

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" How many times do I have to tell you to take the safety off before you try and shoot?" Grey Fox asked Stevie some time later as they all sat in the sitting room. Stevie somewhat miserably, with his hands holding his head. " And besides," Grey Fox continued on cheerfully, oblivious to the man's gloom. " You shouldn't have aimed for my shoulder. That would have only slowed me down. You should know well enough that when you're dealing with someone in the same class as me you should always shoot twice in the heart and once in the head. Really, it's a wonder you got this far without killing yourself."

" What do you want?" Stevie sighed as he looked up at his tormentor. He still wasn't sure that Grey Fox wouldn't kill him later for pulling a gun on her; it was quite possible (probable even) that she was just toying with him and would still take her revenge after she put him through hell.

" It's about time you asked." She said without the cheer in her voice. She switched so readily between emotions and accents that it was no wonder people thought she was crazy. " I need your expertise." She told the hacker.

" For what?" He asked suspiciously.

" Evergreen Bank has a lot of money in it these days." She said somewhat cryptically.

" Are you crazy?" Stevie said incredulously. " You have no idea how many traps and alarms are connected to them, it's cyber suicide to even attempt it! Not to mention that the authorities would be alerted immediately."

" There's always a back door." Grey Fox said, unconvinced by the hacker's excuses.

" Back door or not, it's almost impossible." He still tried to convince the mercenary though he knew it was pointless. He had met Grey Fox three times before and while she paid an unbelievably generous amount for the work he had done; it was alas dangerous and not at all what he wanted to get involved in. He was much more used to hacking into college kids boyfriends or girlfriends computers, sometimes he would go as far as to look into a husbands work computer if his wife suspected him of having an affair or indeed vice versa. But the day that Grey Fox came into his life, he was shoved head first into a world that was more dangerous than he cared to deal with. It was the last time he ever wished for anything more exciting in his life. In short, Grey Fox was bad news for anyone who got involved with her.

" You will do this Stevie." She said almost lightly but there was a dangerous undertone in her voice.

" No I won't." He almost shouted back.

" Yes you will. The pay is good and I know as well as you that you're good enough to do it."

" If I'm good enough than someone else will be too." Stevie argued.

" True enough." Grey Fox agreed, " But my time is short and you are the nearest."

" No. I won't do it, you can't make me."

Grey Fox raised her eyebrows at the challenge. " Fair enough… But tell me; what do you think of my newest protégé?" She asked.

Stevie's eyes narrowed. " He looks fine, why?"

Grey Fox grinned. "Because he's one of the best ones I've ever had; he's so astute and a very quick learner—eager too. Like, just yesterday I thought him this great way to… how should we say, 'make people easier to deal with' and he seems to understand it well enough. But now..." Grey Fox shrugged and opened her arms, her face conveyed regret that she did not feel. " He asks me to let him try it out. I tell him no, of course, I say this to him again and again but he will not listen. What should I do? I have been faced with this predicament for quite a few days now and frankly I am tiring of it. You say that you will not work for me? That is fine but if you do not work with me then you can still be of use to me." Grey Fox said with a shrug. She looked over at Alex. " Alex, show him that move I taught you. It seems that you'll finally have your guinea pig."

Alex was just about able to hide the surprise on his face. _"Alright."_ Alex thought to himself _" I'll play your game."_

Alex stood up abruptly, making his stance look cat like. " Are you sure? I'm really allowed to use 'the claw of doom'?" Alex said and somehow Grey Fox managed to swallow her smile and she gave a curt nod. " But remember, " She told him as seriously as she could, " Don't let go until after he stops screaming because sometimes the body involuntarily jerks. You might hurt yourself."

Alex nodded and began walk forward with all the grace of a dancer just like Yassen Gregorovich used to.

In all fairness to Stevie though, he didn't lose his cool until Alex raised his hand in a claw like manner high above his head.

" Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!" He said quickly holding up his hands as he jumped up off of the chair and retreated away from the creepy teen. " Keep the kid away from me and I'll do it. But this is the _last time_—okay?"

Grey Fox stood up with the most triumphant grin that Alex had ever seen her show. " Marvellous." She said happily. " Meet us in the Spider's Parlour tonight we'll discuss it then. Come on Alex"

With that, they left the apartment. Outside, Grey Fox beamed down at Alex. " That was brilliant." She said, half laughing. " God, his face…" She shook her head. " And the 'claw of doom'? What was that?"

Alex couldn't help but laugh too. " I didn't know that I would have to pretend to be the next super killer when we went in. Next time give me some warning and I'll come up with something better. How come he was so scared though?"

There was a slight look of pride on her face. " Because he knows what my kids can do."

They made their way down the stairs. " He's a good man though, Stevie I mean." Grey Fox said after awhile, quite unexpectedly. " He a coward, but he's not a bad guy."

Alex didn't know why she said that or how to react to it so he didn't say anything. They went back to the apartment in silence.

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That night, Alex found himself in the Spider's Parlour with a group of people he had for the most part not met before. Grey Fox was in her element; she was going from person to person, speaking quietly and quickly; explaining things about the oncoming job.

Half way through the night Stevie showed up looking less than happy about the whole situation. Cane sauntered over to him as soon as he showed himself and draped his arm around him as he led him over to the bar to torment him. Alex was sitting on the bar too, talking to Hawk when he wasn't busy.

" Everyone, I'll give you a brief overview on the details in the back room now." Grey Fox said some time after everyone had arrived.

In the back room everyone gathered around the desk. Grey Fox had maps and blue prints spread out across the desk.

" Our job, as most of you know is to finally rid Evergreen Bank of its burden of keeping all that money safe." There was a few mutterings of amusement and she continued. " This is one of those rare opportunities in life where we can finally use the phrase 'divide and conquer'. This," She said as she pointed to a map. " Is the map of the city and these markings in blue are all the minor banks in the city. And _this_ one in red is Evergreen."

" Why do you have the others marked?" Someone asked her suddenly.

Grey Fox half looked at the person and grinned. " Because we're going to rob them too."

There were a few murmurs of disbelief and a few of astonishment but no one else spoke. "Yes, I know. Don't worry; it's all part of the plan. The goal of these is just to make a distraction. It takes exactly seven and a half minutes for the cops to respond to and arrive at any bank in this area." She said as her finger ran over three bank markings, " In this area it takes roughly eight and here it takes eight and a half. There are twelve precincts in the Bronx and they don't usually like to ask for help from the other sections of the city. If we do this right, which means that there will be a group of people breaking into each bank with ten-minute intervals then there will be half of the police force will be out looking into those banks. This will give us a highly weakened police force and it will give us more than enough time to get in, get out and leave safely. Now, I don't want any of you getting caught so when you break in, make sure you trip the alarm and get out of there as quick as possible, Hawk will tell the teams the details for that part of the mission. I'll explain the details to the group who are coming with me into Evergreen and Stevie; I'll talk to you now. The rest of you are dismissed."

The room cleared out until there was only Grey Fox, Stevie and himself left. Alex decided that he too should probably leave. Anyway, he was sure he had a coke left around somewhere near the bar. At least looking for it would give him something to do. Alex shook his head. The situation was bizarre; he, a MI6 agent, was going to rob a bank with a group of mercenaries, assassins and thieves. To think, most kids his age thought that going on holidays twice a year was amazing.


	8. Chapter 7

Saturday was the day

Saturday was the day. It was D-day; the day of the mission. Alex was woken up early that morning to the sound of coughing. His eyes opened and he lay on his back for a moment before sitting up and getting out of his bed. He quickly got dressed and walked outside to the kitchen. Grey Fox was half propped up on the worktop while Cane was reading the newspapers, seemingly uncaring of the wheezing woman a few feet away.

Grey Fox stopped coughing just as Alex entered and took a white handkerchief away from her mouth before putting it in her pocket. There were a few spatters of blood showing on the material but Alex decided not to say anything about it and instead opted for much less of a concerned greeting.

" You okay?" He asked as he made himself breakfast.

Grey Fox grunted and continued on with what she had been doing. This was not the first time Alex had seen Grey Fox go into a coughing fit, nor would it be the last; the question was, for how long would she suffer? As Grey Fox had already mentioned all that time ago when Alex had first entered the Spider's Parlour, she was dying and it was only a matter of time.

There was a chuckle from behind the newspaper, " Hey, listen to this," Cane said, indicating to the paper, " '…Due to the recent rise in smuggling of arms into the country, an additional two hundred police men and women will be stationed to the shipyards in order to prevent further contraband entering the country…'" Cane shook his head with a lopsided grin. " Geez, it's like you planned this."

Grey Fox returned the grin, " No. I just have good hearing—and luck; I've been making arrangements for the odd box of weapons for the past year, and I've been ordering my men to be sloppy, you know like dropping things, leaving boxes open—stuff like that… I thought it might come in handy some time to have the cops otherwise engaged."

Cane laughed again and Grey Fox couldn't help herself a little either. Alex was left furrowing his brow, clearly not in on the joke.

" I don't get it." He admitted with a shrug, feeling a little put off.

Grey Fox smiled. " It means that we'll have an easier time tonight; a lot of the police will be at the shipping yards and they won't be in a position to respond to—oh, I don't know—a bank robbery. It'll give us more time and better odds."

"Oh," Alex said with a frown, " That's quite convenient though isn't it? The timing I mean. Do you think it could be a trap or something?"

It was Cane's turn to frown. " He's right actually. Are you sure about this?"

Grey Fox stood up and finished the glass of water that was her breakfast. She put it in the sink. "Oh ye of little faith." She sighed in an amused voice. She turned with a smirk. " I'm the one who tipped them off in the first place. I've been their anonymous inside informant for months and I was also the one who rang them last night and told them that something big is happening tonight. Honestly Cane, you're making me look bad in front of my apprentice."

--

It was late now, in fact it was an ungodly hour and Alex was waiting in a car with Grey Fox a block away from Evergreen Bank. It was so late that even the usual weirdoes, who went around muttering about Judgement Day and government conspiracies involving aliens, were already fast as sleep and getting recharged for another day. Alex blinked and rubbed his eyes in order to stay conscious; he sighed and looked over at Grey Fox, whose i-pod was blaring loud enough for him to hear the crappy classical music she was listening to. Her eyes were closed and Alex wondered if she had gone to sleep even though she had strictly ordered _him_ not to. Alex could not have imagined that he would ever feel so bitter about being in a car with Grey Fox and made the quickly decision that sleep was good and robbing banks was bad. And there it was; Grey Fox had cured him of any ideas (even subconscious ones) he might have had involving him and illegal acts.

The music stopped and Grey Fox let out a frustrated sigh. " Battery's dead." She said as she pulled the earphones from her ears and wrapped them around her I-pod. Alex might have been inclined to tell her that doing so would damage her earphones but decided that he was too tired and she could go stuff her bloody music.

The car was deathly silent for a long time.

Eventually, because he was so bored it was hurting him, Alex spoke; " When are we moving?" He asked.

Grey Fox glanced at him and stifled her own yawn. " Not for some time yet." She told him, looking at her watch.

"Oh." He said and returned to look out the window. Again there was a painfully long silence until Alex spoke again about something that had been on his mind a lot lately.

" Can I ask you a question?" He asked, still not moving his eyes from the window.

Grey Fox looked at Alex in surprise. " Yeah, I suppose so. What's it about?"

" My father." Alex told her.

Grey Fox stiffened slightly and looked cautiously at him. Her behaviour was not lost on Alex. " Go on." She said suspiciously after a second.

" You were speaking about him the other day. How do you know him?"

Grey Fox frowned, she opened her mouth to tell him that he shouldn't have been listening in but decided it against it and closed her mouth again. She bit her lip and then answered. " I didn't really know him, Alex." She said carefully with a slow pace, " But he and my father worked together a few times."

Alex felt his heart fall a little. Really though, he didn't know what he had expected to hear. " With Scorpia?" He asked, though it wasn't really a question.

Grey Fox shook her head with a shadow of a smile. " No, not Scorpia. MI6."

This got Alex's full attention as he turned to look at Grey Fox for the first time. " Your dad worked with MI6?" He asked, and before he could stop himself, " What happened to _you_?"

Grey Fox let out a soft breath of laughter, " Cheers Alex." She said, though she wasn't really offended. " And yes my father did work with MI6, for a time; he was a mercenary."

" Oh." Alex said because he didn't know what else to. " Did he work with Scorpia too?"

Grey Fox thought about whether to answer or not, for a moment. " No…" She said slowly, " My father was a mercenary, Scorpia are a group of assassins—the two don't tend to mix well."

Alex raised an eyebrow " Why not?"

Grey Fox shrugged. " Two different animals; tigers and lions, I suppose."

Alex considered this and deduced that there was some subtle difference that only insiders would recognise. Alex himself really couldn't see the difference between what Grey Fox and someone like Yassen Gregorovich did for a living. And because of his lack of insight, Alex asked (in a very slight disbelieving tone.).

" So what's the difference, then?"

If Alex was expecting a particular reaction to his question, it certainly wasn't the one he got. Grey Fox snarled and shot the palm of her hand out against the car's steering wheel in anger. Her eyes burned as she looked straight ahead of her and clenched her jaw. " Assassin's are pigs." She spit in a very thick Russian accent, " Mercenaries are not; they at least have honour."

Grey Fox slowly removed her hand from the steering wheel and crossed her arms. She pursed her lips and had a scowl on her face. She would say nothing more about the subject.

--

The phone rang three quarters of an hour later. Alex breathed a sigh as Grey Fox answered it without speaking. She hung up and looked at Alex.

" It's begun. " she said and as if on cue, a police car's siren sounded somewhere in the distance, although it was probably not related to the arranged incident.

It was a few more minutes before a sudden knock on the window caused both Alex and Grey Fox to jump. Cane's grinning face appeared in the window. Grey Fox pursed her lips but said nothing as she rolled down the window.

"You ready?" He asked.

Grey Fox nodded. "And Hawk?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's ready. Waiting for you two." Cane told her, with more than a subtle hint to get moving.

"Right then," She said, turning off the car's engine, "Let's go Alex."

"Sure thing." Alex sighed as he got out of the car.

They met up with Hawk a moment later. "Thanks for this, Fox."

"No problem, I'm glad to have you. You know that, Hawk." She said happily as they walked on.

Grey Fox turned to Alex. "By the way, if we do happen to get caught; tell them that your name Alex Manning and I'm your older sister Kit. If they ask, you don't know who anyone else is. Okay?"

Alex nodded, but with a frown, "Okay… But why?" He asked, "And I thought this was supposed to be safe; I thought that there was no risk of any trouble."

Grey Fox bit her lip for a second and then smiled. "There's not." She said happily. "But just in case. Now, I'll give you a quick over-view of what we're going to do. First of all, Cane's getting us in; he has someone on the inside, a part-time security guard who's going to let us in. It's cheating—I know, but you should never underestimate the value of a good inside man. A lot of the best and most successful heists have been the simplest and dullest. Most of the flashy stuff rarely works." She tapped her index finger on her temple, in the way she always did when she was parting with her knowledge. "Then Stevie comes in. By now he should probably have taken out the cameras, after that he's going to work on the computer mainframe. When we get into the inner sanctum Hawk's going to break into the vault."

"I thought Stevie was going to do that. Wasn't the vault computer controlled?" Alex asked.

"Two man job." Grey Fox explained. "Don't quite know how it works myself." She said with an easy going laugh.

Alex couldn't hep but notice that the more Grey Fox worked, the more human she seemed to become. It seemed that every other time, she had a mask on and only when she was about to do something illegal and potentially dangerous did she act normal.

Grey Fox, Cane, Alex and Hawk literally walked up to the bank and around the back. The security stood there, holding the back door open with a welcoming smirk.

"Yo, Mike!" Cane greeted. "Thanks for doing this, man. I owe you one now."

The security guard shook his head as they entered the bank. "Not at all; we're even now. But I hope you realise your going to have to make it look like I fought, otherwise I'm out of a job and I'm suspected of being an accomplice."

"Sure thing," Cane assured him, "I could shoot you if you like?"

Mike grimaced. "No, I think a black eye would do."

Grey Fox turned to Alex. "Come on." She said as she began to walk further into the bank. "I'm sure Cane doesn't need our help in that department."

Both Alex and Hawk followed Grey Fox to a T-junction of sorts and Grey Fox stopped. She turned to Alex. "I've got something to take care of, you follow Hawk; I'll meet up with you later."

Both Alex and Hawk made their way through the maze of a bank. "Hawk?" Alex asked.

The big man looked down at Alex to see what he wanted.

"How come you're doing this? I thought you didn't do any, ah, field work, anymore. "

"It's my daughter." Hawk told him, in his usual French accent. "This job will pay for the next three years of her tuition. I'll earn more here tonight than I would after half a year normally."

"Don't you think it's a bit dangerous? I mean, what if you get caught?"

Hawk smiled. "Fox told me that this was low risk; I believe her. Besides, I've done tonnes of things that were more dangerous than this job. And anyway," He added as he shifted his black backpack on his shoulder, "Even if I did get caught; Grey Fox could probably bail me out."

Alex looked doubtfully at the man's blind faith but said nothing. He wondered why so many people trusted her so completely. She was just human after all; she was bound to mess up once or twice. Especially in dangerous situations.

They made it to the vault. Hawk kneeled down on the floor and put his backpack down too. He took out a sleek black laptop and turned it on. He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a mobile phone.

"Call Steve." He told him, "It's seven on speed dial. Tell him that I'm ready." Hawk said as he began furiously typing on the laptop.

Alex nodded. He pressed seven and rang.

"Hello?" Stevie answered.

"Hawk says that he's ready." Alex told him.

"…Fine." Stevie answered and hung up the phone.

The computer bleeped a few times. Alex saw that there were a lot of wires coming from the back of it and going up to a small computerised mechanism beside the vault door. Now that Alex studied the laptop, he was pretty sure that he had never seen the make—or the style of computer; it certainly didn't look like your average everyday Dell computer with Microsoft programming.

Alex leaned over a little and looked into it. "What is that? I've never seen a computer like this one. It looks kind of crappy; homemade."

Hawk managed a smile from underneath a frown of concentration. "You won't find one of these in a shop. They don't make 'em. And if they did, it would be in the hacking department. A friend of Fox's made it, gave me a crash course a while ago too. Pretty cool invention actually; it's like a hacking for dummies guide. Not sure how it works but it can piggyback with other computers—in this instance Stevie's little network. Acts as a back-up; mirrors what the other is doing and cuts the time it takes to finish the job by up to seventy per cent. It's the only way this job would be possible; instead of hours, or even days, it takes only minutes." He sat back on his heels, pressing one or two more buttons and then the enter key. "And… Voilá" Hawk said happily with a satisfied grin. "Now we wait." He told Alex.

"That's all? God, if I'd known robbing banks was this easy, I'd have done it ages ago and said to hell with MI6." Alex joked.

Hawk chuckled. " I think that's what Fox might have planned."

"Oh?" Alex said with his eyebrow raised. "How do you mean?"

"We can always tell when Fox does or doesn't like a person by what type of job she gives them first. A sweet job like this; I suggest you hang around. You'd be privilege to things that most regular assassins or mercenaries would never know about. If you are at all thinking of life here, do consider it."

"Just don't let _her_ hear you say that," Cane called out as he strolled down the hall towards them. "She might take it back just to spite you."

"True enough," Hawk agreed, "Pride always her greatest fault." As he said it, the computer bleeped twice and then the control panel by the vault turned on. The screen showed the cursor moving and then numbers being typed into it as if someone was standing in front of it, doing it themselves. Then suddenly, the control panel switched itself off and the vault door simply swung open.

"Yes!" Cane exclaimed as he strode forward with his empty sports bag and went into the vault.

Hawk's phone rang and he quickly answered it. Stevie was on the other end of the line.

"Did it work?" The hacker asked.

"Yeah, it just opened."

"Okay then, I'm getting out of here before the cops show up."  
"I'll tell Grey Fox that. Thanks Stevie."

Stevie hung up without replying. Hawk just shrugged. "Help us get this stuff out, Alex." He said handing the fourteen year old another empty black bag.

"Sure thing." Alex said, taking the bag.

They walked into the vault and Alex couldn't help but stop for a moment, in awe at the sheer amount of money that was stacked up to the ceiling on all four sides. "Wow." He muttered before shaking himself and getting back to the task at hand.

Cane had already packed half the bag and was grinning idiotically. Hawk looked a little less pleased.

"I wonder where Fox went to?" He said softly, looking worriedly out the vault door and down the hall.

"She's fine, probably setting up something. You know her; she's always doing something." Cane answered, only half paying attention. Alex figured Cane wouldn't be any use to them at the moment; the man was in his own little Nirvana.

Hawk frowned but went back to work. It just so happened that Grey Fox did turn up a few minutes later, carrying an attaché case. She set it on the ground and wordlessly she went about stuffing money into her bag as well.

"Where were you?" Hawk asked, still working.

Grey Fox didn't turn around. "I had something I had to do at the other end of the building."

"What?" Hawk asked but Grey Fox was spared from answering as an almighty siren suddenly went off.

"Damn it!" Grey Fox snarled. "Who set off the bloody alarm!? We're leaving." She said as she slung the bag over her shoulder. Everyone ran towards the door but Grey Fox stopped and went back for the case.

"Come on!" Cane called from outside and a second later Grey Fox appeared.

The four of them ran through the bank. "How much time do we have?" Hawk asked while they ran.

"I'm not sure, maybe four minutes—we should make it." Grey Fox answered, but she sounded worried. They just about made it to the door when Grey Fox paled.

"Shit!" She exclaimed and stopped. Every else did too.

She looked like she was going to scream with rage for a brief second before she controlled herself again. "Alex, take this and all of you run. I left something out; I'm going to go back. I catch up later." Grey Fox left no room for argument as she shoved the case into Alex's hand and then sprinted back the way they'd came. She had barely turned before the group, now consisting of three, had started running again. They were out before Alex knew it and were sprinting back to the car in seconds. They all jumped in the car and started the engine.

"I'll give her one minute." Hawk said with a strained voice. "If she's not out by then, we're leaving."

"We can't just leave her!" Alex said, leaning forward from the back seat.

Cane shook his head and Hawk's shoulders slumped. " We have to. It's the rules." Cane told him.

"But—"

"—Minute's up; time to go." Cane told Hawk who in turn nodded. They were about to pull the car away from the curb when Grey Fox appeared around the corner.

Unfortunately for her, at that same moment sirens were turned on and the headlights of more than one squad car illuminated her like a Christmas tree.

They could just about see Grey Fox mouth the word. "Go." And no sooner had Hawk spotted it then the car squealed away from the curb with such speed that Alex was thrown back into his seat.

Alex just about had time to see Grey Fox slowly raise her hands with a major scowl on her face.

This, Alex decided, hadn't gone as expected at all.


	9. Chapter 8

**Before I begin, I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read and/or reviewed this fanfiction. I really do appreciate the support and would also like to say that reviews are like kittens; little bundles of opinion that I'm really quite fond of. So without further adieu...**

* * *

Alex watched out the window in a daze as they drove back to Grey Fox's home

Alex watched out the window in a daze as they drove back to Grey Fox's home. Cane and Hawk were arguing in the front but Alex wasn't listening; they didn't seem to be talking about anything particularly important. Hawk was muttering something about Grey Fox's stupidity, while Cane was insisting that it if it hadn't been for him, this wouldn't have happened. Hawk certainly didn't disagree with his comrade on that point though. But Alex was too deep in his own thoughts to notice.

There were many thoughts railing through his mind at high speed. How had Grey Fox been so careless as to be caught? What was going to happen to her? What was going to happen to him now? Grey Fox had been found outside of bank that had just been robbed; they'd hardly give her a slap on the wrist and send her home. And if she was already on record (which she probably was)—well that was even worse, wasn't it? There was no telling how long his mentor would be sent to prison for and if they could pin a murder or two on her, then she might even get a death sentence.

His thoughts kept spiralling in that manner to and fro in his head, wrapping up his attention of the outside world and focusing it within. Before Alex realised, they had already pulled up on the curb outside of Grey Fox's apartment.

They all grabbed a bag each and Alex kept a hand on the attaché case that Grey Fox had given him. They got out of the car and walked through the doors of the building. The doorman smiled and bid them a good morning as he held the door open for them and tipped his hat. Alex looked at his watch; it was half five in the morning—much too early, in his opinion, to arrive home with anything _but_ a victory. However, despite Alex's strong opinion on the matter, that was what they were doing; they were coming home to lick their wounds with their tails between their legs.

They walked through the lobby and into one of the lifts. Hawk pressed the button and the doors closed. Within a second, the lift jerked and began to ascend to Grey Fox's floor. While they were in the lift Alex looked down at the attaché case. It was heavy and made out of some sort of metal, probably nigh on impossible to break. Alex wondered what was in the case that was so important that Grey Fox had risked her freedom for. Surely, there wasn't anything that would be valuable enough, was there? Well, what was he saying? Obviously there was if Grey Fox had gone back. Before Alex got lost in his thoughts for a second time in probably as many minutes, the lift dinged pleasantly and the doors opened. Alex followed Cane and Hawk to Grey Fox's apartment door. Cane dug his hand in his trouser pocket and took out a key. He put it in the door and twiddled it a bit before there was a clicking sound and the door opened. The door drifted open itself as Cane put the key back in his pocket. The light clicking sound of heavy paws on wood made everyone aware of the approach of the wolf, Red. Needless to say, before Cane or anyone else could make another move, the large pet had shown itself and had it's hackles raised in it's customary grumpy greeting. Hawk cut in front of Cane and reached out a hand to appease Red. It seemed to work as the wolf, nuzzled his hand for a moment then turned and went back to whatever it was doing. The three of them travelled into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

As they sat down, Alex got his first good look at the other two men. Cane seemed depressed and riddled with guilt, his head was bowed and his eyes seemed distant. Hawk had told Alex that Cane and Grey Fox had gone out for a short while some time ago and though Cane was still undeniably in love with her, she did not feel the same way. Alex figured it must have been a blow to the man, if that really was the case.

Hawk looked a little better but he had the look of someone who was lost. He was staring ahead of him, his fingers tapping on the table unconsciously; he always did that when he wasn't happy, it was one of the first things that Alex had learned about him.

Alex wondered how he was looking himself. He was tired, he knew that much, but how did he look? Did he look as lost as Hawk, or as distraught as Cane? Probably not. He liked Grey Fox, was very fond of her in fact. But she was a criminal and she must of known what the dangers were.

Alex hadn't thought about it before, but what did he feel about this? He guessed that he was sad… and disappointed—angry too. He was sad that Grey Fox was in trouble, which was straightforward enough. But angry? Disappointed? Why?

Alex scowled. He was angry that she had got caught; Grey Fox had given off an air of invincibility—nothing could get to her. So why had it happened? Grey Fox was only human after all, Alex realised bitterly. Really, he was an idiot to get caught up in the idea. And he was disappointed that it wasn't true. He was disappointed that Grey Fox hadn't lived up to her name.

Alex almost laughed when the thought came to him. But figuring that it would seem inappropriate to just burst out laughing in the silent, gloomy room he stayed quiet. It was a worrying thought though. That he, a MI6 agent, would want a killer to be unbeatable. God knew what she had done to people? How about the families she had broken or the people she had hurt? But Alex couldn't deny it; he liked her. And he really didn't consider her to be a 'bad' person. She certainly wasn't a good person, but she wasn't completely bad either.

Alex would have mused more or this thought, but at that moment, Hawk pulled himself away from the table. Causing his chair to make a screeching sound against the tile. Both Alex and Cane looked up, questioningly.

"I have to get home. The wife will be getting up soon. She'll worry if I'm not there. I told her I was working the night shift. She'll kill me if she finds out I was lying." Hawk explained as he opened his black bag and emptied it on the table. Once again, Alex was shocked at the amount of money that they now had. Hawk quickly counted his share of the money and shoved it into the bag again. He zipped it up and put on his back. Before he left he put his hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Don't worry Alex. I'm confident that Grey Fox will find a way out of this. She's resourceful and she knows the game. Have some faith in her."

What could Alex say to that? Have faith? The sheer definition of the word gave Alex reason to doubt. Sure he _wanted_ to believe it, but if there was one thing this last year had thought him, it was to be cynical. To put faith in other people must surely be everyone's downfall right? After all, Alex had had faith that MI6 would be finished with him after Herod Sayle and the Stormbreaker incident, hadn't he? And here he was, on another mission for the damn organisation.

Back to that moment though, Alex just looked to Hawk and nodded his head. "Yeah," He told Hawk, "I will."

It seemed that Alex had lied sufficiently and Hawk accepted his words with an affirming grunt as he took his hand off of Alex shoulder and quietly left the apartment. It wasn't long after the sound of the front door closing, that Cane stood up and announced he was going to get a few hours rest.

"You should too." He advised Alex as he went to his own bedroom.

Alex sat at the kitchen for a little longer, staring at one of the wooden doors on a cupboard. It was where Grey Fox usually kept her bowls and plates, but Alex wasn't concentrating on that fact; he was wondering about what he was supposed to do now. Should he call MI6 and ask them to come home? Or should he stay here for a while? And what was expected of him now? Did Hawk and the others expect him to go? Or did MI6 expect him to stay despite the recent events? Alex shook his head. This was just too much; there were just too many questions for him to answer. At least before breakfast time, anyway. So, after a few moments, Alex concluded that the only thing to do was to take Cane's advice and get a few hours' shuteye. After that, he would see about this predicament. Alex got up and left the kitchen, making his way to his bedroom and closing the door with a dull click.

--

A little earlier and somewhere across the city was a building. In that building there were many men and women—cops, mostly. But some of the people were not. They were mostly criminals, or families of criminals. This was not entirely unexpected—the building was after all a police building. But when he came into work early that morning (due to a robbery, concerning Evergreen Bank), Sergeant Delaney certainly was not expecting the sort of criminal that he found in the interrogation room. The criminal was a young woman, no more than twenty-two or three. Hell, for all he knew she could have been a lot less—she certainly wasn't telling _them_, she had barely spoken a word since she came in. They had taken her picture and fingerprints when she had come in first, only to find that she didn't have any fingerprints; they had been chemically burned off. So it really didn't tell them much about her identity, other than she was obviously used to doing illegal things. That however was not enough evidence to convict her of anything…at least not on its own. And though she had been found outside of the bank, she didn't put up any resistance; which meant that technically, she could have been a passer-by that just got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. The picture they had taken of her did not match any previous offenders in the databanks either. Sometimes Sergeant Delaney hated his job; the woman was clearly as guilty as hell, but they had nothing that they could stick to her. Put simply, in the eyes of the law, she was innocent.

Sergeant Delaney growled in frustration as he walked through the busy office. The place was buzzing with activity—even more so than on a usual Saturday night. Crime didn't seem to care that he was missing a romantic evening with his wife, in fact; it seemed to relish it. But then, maybe that was just the natural cynicism that came with being a cop for forty odd years. He was old, tired and close to retirement; he didn't need this anymore. The wife was complaining that he didn't spend enough time with her. And he wanted to still have a Mrs. Delaney at the end of the day when the force asked for his badge and gun.

But back to that moment, Sergeant Delaney was standing outside a door. It was the door to the interrogation room. He looked in the grill of the door, just in time to see Matthews bang the table in frustration and yell and the silent woman. Clearly, she still wasn't talking.

Sergeant Delaney shook his head and opened the door, she was one tough cookie it seemed; Matthews could be damn intimidating when he wanted to be. That only made Delaney even surer that the woman was guilty; no one would be uncooperative unless they had something to hide, especially when Matthews was on the case. Even the sergeant shuddered when he thought of what had happened a few months back with a possible murder case. Matthews was just back from his suspension.

Matthews looked at his boss when he entered and straightened up. He walked over to the sergeant and began a hushed conversation.

"I can't get anything out of her, Serge." Matthews told him quietly. "And I've done everything except resort to violence."

The way Matthews told him this, made Sergeant Delaney realise that he was asking permission.

Sergeant Delaney scowled. "Take a brake, Matthews, go get yourself some coffee or something. I'll talk to her."

Matthews looked as if he was going to argue but then just grunted and with a roll of his eyes, he left the room.

With his comrade's departure, Sergeant Delaney was left in the room with Jane Doe. Apart from a clock ticking, the whole room was silent.

Sergeant Delaney clicked his tongue and then went over to sit on the uncomfortable metal chair, opposite the woman.

Grey Fox raised an eyebrow as if to challenge a change of tactics, but her mouth was firmly closed.

Sergeant Delaney clasped his hands in front of him, letting them rest on the table. For the first time, he got a good look at the potential convict. She was young, as he had already noticed. She had dark blond hair, bordering brown and unusual eyes; one was blue and the other green. It really wasn't noticeable until you got up close. She was skinny too, but then all the young ones were these days, weren't they? There was nothing really distinguishing about her features, she could easily be mistaken for a great many people, or no one at all. She was one of those people who could be forgotten easily, if the need required her to. Having said that, the woman in front of the aging cop was really quite pretty. She wasn't absolutely gorgeous but far from ugly and good looking in a quirky kind of way. Still, there was a sort of hardness to her eyes and face that he didn't like and it firmed his resolve to not take it easy on Jane Doe.

"So," Sergeant Delaney said eventually, as he turned on the recorder, "Please state your name for the record."

Silence meeting this as Grey Fox steadily held his gaze. The man sighed and reached to turn off the recorder.

But before he did, Grey Fox spoke for the first time. " P. Leila." She said.

Sergeant Delaney looked surprised. "So what does the "P" stand for?" He asked, pleased at the cooperation.

A shadow of a smile crossed Grey Fox's lips. "Princess." She answered.

The cop's brow furrowed for a moment before he realised she was joking and then he threw her an exasperated glare.

"_Oh Great,"_ Sergeant Delaney groaned to himself, _"A Criminal Star Trek fan, just what I need…"_

But he didn't voice this as he leaned closer to the Grey Fox. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" He asked, "Anything you do to cooperate will be noted, but if you keep wasting our time, then nobody's going to be sympathetic towards you. Help _us_ help _you_."

Grey Fox glanced down at her cuffed hands, with a sigh. "Listen," She said, in her business tone. "You seem like a good guy—probably one of the few cops that aren't crooked in this city. So do yourself a favour and let me go now, otherwise your not going to be going home happy to your wife tonight."

Sergeant Delaney's eyes narrowed, "Are you threatening me?" He asked with a low voice.

"No." She denied, "I'm just telling you what's going to happen."

"Oh? Well then, tell me what you think will happen in this deluded little world of yours."

Grey Fox shrugged. "It could be an hour, could be a day. It depends on how long you intend to revoke my right to a phone call. Of course I might not even need to call them, but that's irrelevant. Either way, some time in the near future some guy in a suit is going to come through the front doors, he's probably going to be arrogant—act like he owns the place; you know the sort. The type whose look just screams 'government'." She said the last sentence in quiet hiss. "He'll come in and ask to speak to whoever is in charge. That's you, I assume. You'll get called out and he'll ask you to let me go. Judging by what I've seen, you'll be likely to decline. Then he'll tell you. It'll be an offer that you won't be able to refuse. If you do happen to fight; you'll probably lose your job. These people don't like to be challenged. After that, I'll be let out free of charge and you and I will part ways. There's nothing more to it."

Sergeant Delaney leaned back and crossed his arms, trying to hide a smirk. "Oh really?" He asked, humouring the women, "And what makes you so special? Are you a spy? An undercover governmental agent? Or do you have some special secret powers?"

Grey Fox knew exactly what the cop thought of her, but she ignored him and answered the question. "Not quite." She told him, "I've done some work for them—nothing fancy."

"You know how I know you're a whack job?" The Sergeant asked.

"How?" Grey Fox asked, refusing to be offended.

Sergeant Delaney regarded her with a knowing smile, "Because you're telling me this. If you really were some government operative then you'd be sworn to secrecy."

Grey Fox looked bored as she gave a quick glance around the room. "I don't swear." She said.

Annoyance flashed through his features for a moment before he reigned his emotions in. "You think you're so smart, don't you?" He told her angrily, "Well, I've got news for you; whack job or not, you're in a lot of trouble. Now, we're going to start this again. State you're name for the record."

Grey Fox rolled her eyes but she did actually answer the barrage of questions thrown at her. Surprisingly enough, this time, she answered truthfully. But whether the old cop knew this or not, was not entirely clear. It didn't matter; this would all be covered up anyway.

--

It was about hour later when a knock came on the door of the interrogation room. Sergeant Delaney looked up as Brooks opened it.

"Sergeant," He said, sounding as if he was frustrated, "There's someone here to see you."

Sergeant Delaney sighed, "Who is it?" He asked, Brooks shrugged and said he had no idea, "Tell them I'm busy. Make them leave a message and get out of here." He turned back around to Grey Fox.

"I tried that already, Sergeant. But…" Brooks hesitated, "You're going to want to see this."

The Sergeant grudgingly got up out of his chair. "I'll be back in a minute." He told the suspect.

"Not likely." Grey Fox answered. Sergeant Delaney gave her a pointed look but said nothing as he left the room.

Grey Fox listened to the door close with a bang and hid a small grin. It was only a matter of time now before she was on the way home.

Grey Fox looked around the room to keep herself occupied. From outside she could hear raised voices and the hush from all other background noises—not even a printer seemed to be running.

Some of the words carried themselves to Grey Fox's ears.

"…Not a hope in hell… I've been a cop for…now listen here…will not be bullied into…"

She easily recognised the voice of the over-enthusiastic cop. It was all going to schedule. Then there was silence for a moment and another man spoke outside, but his voice was much quieter and she couldn't make out more than mumbling.

It didn't take long for the door to open once more and a very unhappy Sergeant Delaney to walk through. He grabbed keys out of his pocket and went over to Grey Fox. He opened her cuffs.

"You're free to go." He said gruffly and he turned on his heel and left. Grey Fox rubbed her wrists and looked up as the doorway was once again darkened with a figure. A tall, well-groomed man in a black suit was leaning up against it.

"A fine mess you got yourself into this time, Ms. Manning." He told her.

Grey Fox nodded and stood up. "Yeah I know. Come on, let's go, James." The two of them left the room.

--

On the way out of the building, they passed Sergeant Delaney. The man in the suit, James, stopped. "There will be a clean-up crew arriving shortly," He told the head of the department. "It would be appreciated if you gave us your full co-operation."

"Not bloody likely." Was the man's gruff reply.

James shrugged and turned to Grey Fox. "Would it help you any, for me to remove this man?" He asked.

Grey Fox raised her eyebrow. Remove generally meant kill. James seemed to realise this and cracked a small smile.

"Politely, I mean." He elaborated.

Oh, that was a different thing all together. "No," She declined, "He can keep his job."

"Very well."

They turned and left the building. Sergeant Delaney let out a frustrated growl and flung a few colourful profanities out at passers by. "Damn Feds." He muttered. He turned and walked into his office.

--

However, the good sergeant was wrong. It wasn't the Feds the picked Grey Fox up. It _was_ a governmental agency, all right. But they were much higher up than the Feds and were run by a group that even Washington had only heard rumours of. Grey Fox sometimes wondered if the President knew about them. She looked over at James, who was driving at that moment. No, the president probably didn't know—not the specifics anyway.

James noticed Grey Fox's eyes on him and he took his eyes off of the road for a moment. "What?" He asked, before looking back.

Grey Fox shook her head. "Nothing. I was just thinking… Thanks by the way."

"No problem," He told her, "But just so you know, I had to cancel my plans for this. I wouldn't mind but it's not something you should have gotten caught for. What's going on?"

Grey Fox closed her eyes. "Nothing."

"Nothing? The bosses want to know what the deal is and all I have to tell them if nothing? If I'm lucky, I'll be fired…"

Grey Fox knew this. If he was unlucky he'd probably be killed. She had seen it happen to the organisation's operatives before. A few years ago, she would have done it on purpose, but then James had come along to fill in the place of her 'keeper'. Despite herself, she liked James. He wasn't like the other ones who had practically tried to leash her. He didn't try and prove anything. Grey Fox sighed; she had gone soft.

"Tell them there was mutiny and I'm going to deal with it myself."

James nodded. He didn't mind lying for her; she would be just as vulnerable as he was if they thought she was losing her touch.

A comfortable silence fell between them for a while. James turned a corner and cursed as someone cut across him, speeding down the road. He pursed his lips and took another glance over at Grey Fox.

" I know officially it's none of my business to care about what you do but… what the hell where you doing in Evergreen Bank? How the did you get caught _there_? Something like that should be a walk in the park for you."

"Off the record?"

"Of course."

Grey Fox licked her lips; she always did when she was about to divulge information about her past. "When I first came to America," She told him, "I had blood on my hands—a lot of blood on my hands. When I arrived, I carried three things with me; one of them I lost and I had two that I knew I could not appreciate at that time. So I hid them, I kept them safe. Later, the place I was staying in got broken into and though they were not found I realised that I needed someplace safer to keep them. I saved up, opened an account and bought a slot in Evergreen bank. Those two things were put into an attaché case and locked away, eventually I forgot about it. When a friend told me about Evergreen, I remembered it. I wanted to get it back so I did. But I left something out; something that could be traced right back to me; it was sloppy. Really I deserved to be caught."

"And what were these things that were so important?" James asked.

Grey Fox smiled. "Wouldn't you like to know? I'm afraid I don't like you enough to say."

"Hmm, suit yourself; I was only making conversation." He defended, "Speaking of secrets though, how come you never mentioned that new protégé of yours?"

"How do you know about Alex?" Grey Fox asked suspiciously.

James shrugged, "It's my job to know."

"Yeah well there was nothing to tell."

"He's British. He works for MI6—I think that's something to talk about."

"It was a favour to Alan Blunt, that's all."

James laughed. "Since when do you do favours for him?"

Grey Fox scowled. "You know you're becoming a bit of a know-it-all, you know that?"

James ignored her. "So why did you take him?"

"You ever hear of John Rider?"

James shook his head. "The name's familiar but I couldn't put a face to him."

"Yeah well, Alex is his son."

"And?"

"I owed John a favour that I never repaid him for."

"The kid knows you took him on because of that?"

"Nah, I don't think so. He asked me about him once though."

James raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

Grey Fox bit her lip. "I lied." She said softly.

"Why? What could be so bad for you to lie?"

"Look, it was the best thing to do at the time—and before you start, I don't need to hear one of your lectures."

"Hey, hey, my lips are sealed." His said, looking offended.

And true to his word, James and Grey Fox didn't speak until he pulled up in front of her apartment building.

"Well," He said, "With any look I won't see you for at least another year."

"Yeah, the same to you." Grey Fox replied as she opened the car door and got out.

"See you around, Kit Manning." James said.

"Yeah, later James." Grey Fox closed the car door and headed for the door of the apartment building. She heard the sound of the car drive away. The doorman smiled at her and bid her a good morning as he opened the door.

She walked through and went to past the lobby into the lift. The lift did its job aptly and when the doors opened again, she was on her floor.

She looked at her watch; it was half eight in the morning. She took her keys out from her pocket; they jangled as she put them in the keyhole. From the other side of the door she could already hear Red's claws click from the other side. Grey Fox smiled; she was home.


	10. Chapter 9

Alex woke up early, he didn't want to, but he did

A/N: Hey guys I finally updated! I'm really sorry about leaving it for so long, there's been a tonne of things happening—including my computer breaking (twice), anyway, enjoy!

Alex woke up early, he didn't want to, but he did. Wearily he opened his eyes as he yawned and stretched. Looking over at the clock on the bedside locker, he realised that it was about eight in the morning. The events from last night came back to him like a train crash; it was fast and devastating. He groaned as he remembered the problems that had arose from last night. What would happen to him now?

His stomach, however, had different worries and it put everything else second. It growled at that moment, loudly. Telling him less than politely that he really should get out of bed and do something—eat, preferably.

So, listening to the absolute word of his stomach, Alex slowly crawled out of bed and got dressed. Outside he heard the clicking of Red's nails as he trotted down the hall, past his door. Absently, he wondered what would happen to the wolf now. Hawk would probably take him in. Hawk seemed to be the only person that Red liked other than Grey Fox.

Finally, Alex was ready to go. He opened the door to his room and walked out. He walked down the hall to the sitting room that adjoined with the kitchen. Initially, all he saw was Red by his food bowl, eating his breakfast. That in its self surprised Alex. Cane was the only other person in the apartment and he rarely got up before ten in the morning. Next Alex saw who really looked after Red. He stopped and stared.

Grey Fox looked up and grinned. "Hey," She said happily, "Miss me?"

Alex managed half a grin, "I'm still not sure you're here." He frowned, "Were you even ever gone? For all I know you might have just come home early and gone to bed."

Grey Fox laughed. "Nope. Got arrested and all. Hope I didn't worry you." She said merrily as she dug into her bowl of cereal.

Alex sat down at the table across from her. "How come you're here? You were arrested. They don't let people out like that."

"I'm here because this is my home. Yes, I was arrested. And no they don't let people out 'like that'."

Alex half scowled. "Seriously, what's going on?"

Grey Fox sobered up a little, turning serious. "Well, I have some acquaintances that were in a position to help and they did not want to see me…Out of action." She chose her words carefully and her words were guarded. Alex was well aware of this, but decided to keep quiet about it. Maybe some day she'd tell him what she had meant. Probably not though, Grey Fox kept information as close to her chest as a poker player with their cards.

Just then Cane stumbled through the kitchen, blurry eyed and his hair in a mess. By then, Grey Fox had trained him to wear suitable clothing when leaving his room. He stopped as he saw her and laughed. "You're home!" He exclaimed happily. "You got out, I knew you would."

Grey Fox nodded, her mood hadn't quite elevated back up to its previous height. "Yes, but I don't like owing favours." She said with a deep scowl.

Cane wiped the smile off of his face. "I'm sorry." He mumbled, shamed that it was still his fault that she had gotten arrested. Grey Fox seemed to be appeased by her comrade's guilt and she just nodded.

"What was so important that you had to get caught for?" Alex asked suddenly. Grey Fox reached under the table to the attaché case. She put it on the table and opened it. A grin appeared on her lips for a moment. She turned it around so that it was facing Alex.

His eyes widened. " Diamonds?" He said in disbelief as his hands hovered over the plum sized glittering jewels.

"Actually, no." Grey Fox corrected him, "I mean, yeah, most of them are, but one of them is only glass—and that's the important one."

"Glass? Why would you want that?" He asked in confusion, looking up to meet Grey Fox's eyes.

"Because, what's inside of it, is much more valuable than any silly little rock." She explained as her nimble fingers fished through her cash. Eventually, she found it and held it up to the light. "Here it is! See this?" She asked. Alex did see it. Inside of the fake diamond was a small black object. Alex couldn't tell what it was.

"What is that? It looks like plastic…"

Grey Fox shook her head. "Yeah, it's covered in plastic. I did that to protect it so that it didn't get damaged when I melded it into the diamond. It's actually a computer chip though."

"A computer chip? What would you want one of those for?"

Grey Fox grinned. "This computer chip," She told him, leaning forward, "Could control the world. It's the single most dangerous weapon in the world—not even nuclear weapons could make the world tremble like this."

"What does it do?"

"It's a programme, made years ago by one of the most talented scientist of our time. Once the chip is installed in a computer—any computer—it overwrites the system and sends out signals used to control satellites. It can hack into _any_ network of computers, or indeed any stand-alone computer once the machine has picked up signals from a satellite. Essentially, with this tiny little chip, I could sit down at my computer, and hack into every confidential file in every country. I could bring up your file and your details as easily as I could take America's nuclear missiles hostage and threaten to fire them at any country I wanted. Basically, I could start the third world war, sitting in my kitchen."

"This chip sounds very dangerous. Why not just get rid of it, destroy it, the damage it could do in the wrong hands could send the world into complete chaos."

"It's not that simple."

"Why? How could you have a problem with possibly saving millions of lives?"

Grey Fox shook her head; she opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. With a sigh, she finally spoke. "Never mind, Alex, you're right; no one should risk peoples lives." She left the sentence hanging in the air.

Since normal conversation seemed not to be forthcoming, Alex cleared his throat. "So where did you get all of those diamonds?" He asked, trying to sound as if they had been just exchanging small talk.

Grey Fox perked up, now that they had continued on. She began rummaging through the contents of the case again. "I was in Africa a few years back, nicked it off one of those 'freedom fighters'. You know, the thugs that go around killing people—I figured it was fair game."

Alex frowned. "What were you doing in Africa? And how did you get close enough to steal from one of those guys?"

Grey Fox didn't reply, instead she exclaimed, "There it is," And she held up a ring.

"What's that?"

"Proof of identification."

Alex looked at the ring. It looked like just a plain silver band, but on closer inspection, Alex saw that it was actually in the shape of a snake eating it's own tail. He knew what it was; he had heard it somewhere before, and though he couldn't remember where, the information about the symbol burned brightly in his memory. It was called the Ouroboros and it was the sign for infinity. A very odd symbol to carry on a ring. Grey Fox put it in her trouser pocket and when Alex asked, she just shook her head and said she'd explain it later. By this time, Cane had begun to study the diamonds, and valued them, exclaiming that they were worth a fortune and that he had forgotten about them. It struck Alex as an odd thing to say; he hadn't realised that Cane had known about them, and had certainly not indicated that he was aware of their presence in the bank. Yet he spoke as if he was somewhat familiar to them. Still, Alex knew better by now than to ask, he knew he wouldn't get a straight answer from either of them; Grey Fox rarely gave out information willingly, if asked and Cane was always terrified that Grey Fox wouldn't approve of him speaking either. So Alex was often left out of the loop when it came to their mysterious in-jokes and private histories.

Time passed. It was about mid-day when the knock on the door came. Alex was helping Cane with some sort of documentation. Cane had explained it to him, and he hadn't tried to hide them when Alex was reading them, but they were so boring that both attempts to further Alex's knowledge on the subject failed miserably. Grey Fox called that she would answer the door and continued to do it. She spent a few seconds standing there with someone else on the other side, but neither of them spoke. Then, the strange person walked away and Grey Fox shut the door behind him. She came into the sitting room. Cane looked up.

"Who was that?"

"You're going to be the death of me." She told him.

"Huh?" Cane said in confusion, his features twisting comically. Grey Fox gave him that 'unpleased' look she was very good at and threw a piece of paper onto the table, on top of the painfully drawn out documents. Cane cursed which was enough for Alex to take sudden interest in whatever was there. He looked down and studied the offensive item. He was wrong, it wasn't paper; it was more like a playing card. On it, was the King of Clubs with a deep scratch across the middle.

"King wants to see us." She said angrily.

Cane cringed at her voice, "Ah hell, I'm sorry, Fox."

The female mercenary just shook her head with agitated resignation. "Don't worry about it, just take care of yourself and Alex. I presume we should go at nine tonight?"

Cane nodded. "That's probably for the best."

"Fine, get what you need, I'll see you later." Grey Fox said, turning and leaving the house.

Cane turned to Alex. "It looks like we're going shopping."

Walking through probably the hundredth shop of the day, Alex groaned. Cane turned, looking concerned.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied. Actually, he had lost the will to live some time ago; he might have even died and gone to hell. But whatever the case, he was sure that this was not heaven anyway.

"Hey, I know this is tough, but this is the last stop."

It was a tailoring shop. Cane spoke to the shop assistant and pulled out a suit he had bough earlier. He spoke to the man a moment and pointed at Alex. The man nodded and motioned for Alex to follow him. By the end of their time in the shop, both Cane and he were equipped with sleek looking, perfectly fitting, tailored suits.

"It was a calling card." Cane explained on the way out, after Alex inquired. "The King sent it, he's obviously having a little soiree tonight and he probably wants to discuss the bank job."

"Who is he?"

"He's the head of the guild of mercenaries. All the top members have names from a deck of cards, you know, like King, Queen, Ace and Joker. They are the top in their respective fields usually and they have to be elected to the spot by their predecessor. It's quite an honour actually."

"Grey Fox never mentioned the guild of mercenaries."

"Yeah, no kidding; she hates them like you wouldn't believe."

"So what do they do then? Is it like an agency or something?"

Cane thought about it for a second. "Yeah, kinda. It's more like an organisation. Basically, if you want to do a job, you have to go to the person in charge of the jurisdiction and clear it with them."

"Why is that?"

"Well, for a lot of reasons. One reason is so that you don't get people doing stupid things, you know, doing anything dangerous or that could cause a lot of unwanted publicity. Also it means that you don't get two groups doing the same job at the same time and it also means that new up and comers get a foot into the business. They run it like a proper business."

"It sounds like a good idea, I suppose."

"Yeah, it is. It's quite new actually. I think it was founded only about thirty years ago. Before that, mercenaries were all out for themselves, it really was a revelation."

"Oh." Alex nodded. He knew he didn't need to contribute to the conversation; Cane was in a rhythm of his own and would ramble on without aid.

"Yeah, actually, Grey Fox's Dad was one of the founders—he first thought of it. He's practically idolised nowadays. Its part of the reason Grey Fox dislikes it so much, they expect her to act the same as he did—and she doesn't want to be forced to act like anyone else. Also, she's kind of funny about her dad, don't talk about him unless she starts the conversation."

Alex was quiet for a moment. It was strange to think that Grey Fox had parents. Yeah, he knew that his father and her's knew each other, but it was odd to hear about him. It made him wonder about her Mother.

"What were her parents like?"

Cane looked away and whistled. "Listen man, you _do not_ want to go there. Especially about her mother—I mean, if your suicidal yeah, go ahead but otherwise leave it alone."

Alex shrugged but his thoughts still began to wonder. Clearly, Grey Fox wasn't as solitary as she appeared to be. After all, she had friends and allies and apparently family all over the place.

"Did you two go out?" He blurted out suddenly.

Cane stiffened momentarily and then snorted. "Yeah, once, for like a month. She, ah… 'Broke up' with her boyfriend and I finally convinced her to go out." He said in a strange voice.

"Boyfriend? Alex asked, intrigued. Grey Fox just didn't look like the type who would seek companionship.

Cane huffed. "The guy's been gone for ages and she still pines over him like a school girl." Cane bit his lip. "Don't tell Fox I said that, she'd kill me."

"You think you stand a chance with her? Is that why you're always hanging around?" Alex asked with a mischievous grin.

Cane bristled and he stuck his nose up. "What would you know? You're just a kid."

Alex looked away to hide a smirk. Clearly, he was right.

They got back to the apartment block and walked in. Grey Fox met them in the foyer, she had been talking to the receptionist when they arrived and went up with them. They exchanged small talk and when they got back in the apartment Grey Fox told them that they should get changed and she opened a plastic bag from the butcher and poured the meat into Red's food bowl. She herself then proceeded to get dressed.

Half an hour later, Cane and Alex were standing in the kitchen, dressed in their tuxedos, waiting for Grey Fox to reappear.

"Fox." Cane called out, "You ready yet? We're going to be late!"

They could hear Grey Fox sigh. "Yeah, yeah, give me a moment." Seconds later she came out, looking less than pleased with herself. She was in a long black dress, which framed her shape beautifully. She had her hair done up and she was wearing make up. For the first time since he had met her, Alex realised that she was more than just pretty, she was very beautiful—she just hid it well.

Cane whistled and grinned stupidly.

"Come on." She said rolling her eyes with annoyance. "Let's get this over with."

A/N: By the way, for those that are wondering; either the next chapter, or the one after it (depending how long it is), will be a biggie. I mean, major plot bunnies! They're like were-bunnies they're so big.


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: I know it took ****forever****, I'm sorry about that, I really am. I don't have a good excuse this time, not really except that this chapter was the bane of my existence…**

**However, on a more upbeat note, I want to take this moment to thank everyone who read and/or reviewed this story. I really appreciate it! Now without further ado…**

They arrived outside a very large building, a skyscraper that almost seemed to be made entirely out of glass. They stepped out of the car and walked up to the door in silence. While they were still in the car, Grey Fox had warned Alex not to talk unless it was absolutely necessary, though she wouldn't say why. There was a valet service at the door, which was frankly quite odd, because after all, wasn't this supposed to be some sort of secret organisation? Well this was evidently a very big deal because they were pulling out all the stops; there was even a red carpet and doormen in very fancy suits that greeted Grey Fox and Cane with, what seemed to be recognition. Behind them, other people were arriving too, dressed just as nicely. It reminded Alex of all those red carpet events that the celebrities are always seen at, only without the paparazzi and the autograph signings.

The trio went through the doors, which had been opened for them. They walked all the way up through the lobby and into the lifts. Grey Fox leaned against the wall as the door closed and Cane pulled out a small key, which he put into a keyhole on the control panel. As he turned the key, the button for the penthouse lit up. Cane pressed it and the lift clunked before it began to move. They ascended for a long time, no one spoke a word during the journey; Alex had been warned that the lift would be bugged and basically that he should keep his mouth shut.

Finally, the lift stopped and Grey Fox straightened. The doors opened and Alex got a first glimpse of the real underworld.

It was…surprising.

Men and women were scattered around a grand room, all dressed to the nines. The glamour was striking and made the whole thing look very civilised and not to mention like a regular company party.

Grey Fox and Cane walked out of the lift and into the room and Alex followed. Alex shifted his shoulders uncomfortably in his newly made suit, it was tight across his shoulders; Cane had said it was supposed to be, but Alex wasn't so sure.

They made their way past small groups of people, talking in friendly voices, and over to a table that held a sculpture of an angelic figure with her hands held up towards the ceiling. Grey Fox surveyed the room critically, with her arms crossed.

"You see anyone?" She asked Cane, speaking for the first time since they stepped inside the building.

Cane shook his head. "Nah, not yet."

Grey Fox grunted and then spied someone, a man, who was walking towards them. "Ah, speak of the devil." She muttered just loudly enough for Cane and Alex to hear.

"Well, if it isn't our favourite dynamic duo." The man said as he sauntered up to them. "And who's this?" He asked, looking down at Alex with sincere interest.

"No one that you need to know, Ace." Grey Fox said sternly.

The man, Ace, quirked a smile. "No need to get so aggressive about it. I'm just being polite, that's all. You know about politeness, right?"

Grey Fox sighed, "Why are you here? We don't have anything to talk about."

"Actually, that's where you're wrong," Ace corrected her, "King wants to see you."

"I know." Grey Fox nodded.

"Hmm, yes, we all have a lot to discuss, don't we?" Ace asked.

"We?" Grey Fox asked with a quirked brow, "_We_ won't be talking about anything. Whatever, the King wants to discuss is between him and me. _You_ are not involved."

"Don't be so sure. I'm just as important as King in my own division, I have as much right to be there as he."

Grey Fox ignored him and scanned the area.

"Looking for someone?" Ace asked.

"None of your business." Grey Fox replied tersely.

"Well since we're here, do you mind telling me where Cane has slipped off to?" He asked.

Grey Fox and Alex both turned around in surprise to see an empty space where Cane had previously been.

"I guess you scared him away, Ace." She told him.

Ace made a doubtful grunt as he pursed his lips. "I don't agree with having you two teamed up so closely. It's almost like you're conspiring against the organisation… Is that it? Do you desire the downfall of this system? "

This got Grey Fox's attention. "If you'll recall, Ace, it was _King_ who put the two of us together in the first place; I had nothing to do with it, _I_ was just following orders." She replied with heat in her voice.

"Yes, that _is_ true, but I don't think that King ever intended for Cane and you to have such a strong and long lasting alliance."

"Well, it appears he made a bad decision then, doesn't it?"

For the first time, Ace and Fox seemed to have come to an agreement. Ace nodded and muttered, "Yes it seems that he always makes bad decisions when Cane is involved." He seemed to shake himself from the thought and readdressed Grey Fox. "Well, I must go; there are people to see, connections to establish, you know the sort of thing." And with that he briskly walked away, leaving Alex baffled about the whole exchange. It all had seemed quite pointless, why come over if he was just going to exchange a few insults and leave.

Alex decided it was time to break the short-lived 'no talking' rule. "Who was he?" He asked quietly.

"Ace," She replied without looking over at Alex. "One of the heads of this organisation… I presume Cane told you about them?"

Alex shook his head. "He mentioned the guild briefly, but only outlined what it did. He didn't really talk about the people."

Grey Fox nodded. "No time like the present, I suppose. Ace was the head of the information retrieval department—"

"—You mean, torture?"

"…Yeah, sometimes but usually, he just gets his underlings to infiltrate or go undercover. His specialty is biological weapons; stuff like anthrax and other virus', I don't know what the appeal is myself, but he's good at his job and even I can't deny that he's practically a genius. He deserves your respect, Alex, even if he is a complete idiot outside of work.

"Then there's Joker, he's originally from England—London, actually. A very good man… a bit over enthusiastic, perhaps. He's the first person I met that was from this organisation, brought me over to America and introduced me to everyone. He's a bomb expert, a fantastic artist if you're in to that sort of thing, but he gets on too well with a very good friend of mine—and I'm always wary when that happens. She makes bombs too, you see, and the effects can be…explosive." Grey Fox chuckled to herself at the last sentence.

"A friend?" Alex asked.

The mercenary nodded with a smile. Alex was about to enquire about it when another person approached them.

She was an older woman; her hair had once been black but was now mostly grey. She was slim and held herself like a lady with money but she had the beginnings of frailty in her features. The old woman wore a long sleeved dress with sparkly fibres in it that was clearly label. Her eyes lit up when she saw Grey Fox and she rushed up to meet her. She smiled warmly, the skin around her eyes and mouth wrinkled. She and Grey Fox shook hands.

"I haven't seen you in too long, how are you, Grey Fox?" She asked, sounding genuinely pleased to see her.

Grey Fox too, mirrored the good humour and for the first time since they left her apartment, she actually looked happy. She grinned. "Queen," She greeted back, "I'm good, and yourself?"

They exchanged small talk for a little while; talking about pointless things that Alex had no interest in. He took that opportunity to look around the room. Everyone was scattered about in small groups of ones and twos, or threes and fours. He noticed that there seemed to be three main types of people, although they were all dressed up and looking their best, it was clear that there was different classes. One group, although dressed up, were almost rough looking; they didn't seem comfortable in their suits and dresses and they shifted from foot to foot, making uncomfortable talk in an attempt to keep their voices low and civilised. Then there was the group that seemed to fade into the background; they looked like police trying to look inconspicuous; they almost made it work, but somehow you just knew they weren't _with_ everyone else. They didn't seem to be partaking in conversation apart from the occasional few mutters to each other as they passed. Finally, there was the group that seemed to be made up of people like Ace and Queen and Grey Fox. They all had an air of power among them, and an unconscious sense of danger emitting from them. They seemed to float around the room, going from group to group and displaying their superior confidence. It was clear that the last of the groups mentioned was the one that held most power, yet it was clear that Grey Fox wasn't a part of that. Despite the fact that she was obviously on the same social standing as the rest of them, Cane had assured him that Grey Fox wanted nothing to do with them. So where did she come in? Alex was beginning to get an idea, but it was like a piece of a jigsaw rather than a picture.

"And who's this?" Queen asked looking at Alex.

Grey Fox answered for him. "My new protégé." She told Queen, "He's one of my best." She said proudly and Alex was surprised to see that she actually seemed to mean it.

"Ah, I thought it might have been. Everyone's talking about this mysterious young man—but you know that, I'm sure. I must admit, I find myself interested in some of the rumours about where you got him. A certain governmental agency, perhaps?" Queen asked mischievously.

But Grey Fox wouldn't take the bait to continue on with that conversation. She shook her head with a grin. "Now where would you have heard that?" She asked.

Queen made a vague gesture with her hand. "Oh, around…" She said with equal vagueness.

"Hmm, well it couldn't possibly be true, could it? I mean, what would I be doing with a governmental agency?" She replied innocently.

Queen laughed. "That's the thing though, isn't it? No one knows exactly how involved you are with all of those people. You could be the president of Tibet, for all we know."

Grey Fox frowned. "Isn't Tibet ruled by a royal family?"

Queen shook her head. "You know very well what I mean. But enough of that…I have to go, matters to attend to and the like. I'll see you later; King is adamant about that, let me assure you."

Grey Fox rolled her eyes. "When isn't he? There's always something."

Queen smiled and bid them a formal good evening before going over to a small group of people across the room.

"That was Queen." Grey Fox told Alex in a low voice so that the passing people wouldn't hear. "She's also one of the heads of the guild. I'm quite fond of her, she's an easy person to be around, but don't be fooled by her personality; she's a low lady…do you know what that is?"

Alex shook his head. "I've never heard of it, doesn't sound good though, does it?"

Grey Fox shook her head. "No, it's not. It means that she specialises in poisons. They're tricky to be around, those low ladies. Most of them carry pins or needles tipped with poisons. Problem with pins is that they can be hidden practically anywhere; you wouldn't even know she had one until you got a prick and even then it would be too late. I normally wouldn't even shake hands with a low lady in case there was one under her nail or something; low ladies are almost always immune to their own poisons, so it's quite possible for that to happen."

"Why did you shake her hand then, if it's so dangerous?" Alex asked.

Grey Fox smiled. "I'm in her good books at the moment; I helped one of her people out a while ago and she owes me a huge favour because of it—even if she'd wanted to, she couldn't kill me until that debt had been repaid. It's just the way of things. But enough of that, I was telling you about the heads of the guild. Jack is next. He takes care of all the files and accounts of the organisation. It's a huge responsibility and a very important job. It's not just about numbers either, he has to make sure that the right people stay uninterested in the guild and at the same time make sure that there's a certain amount of curiosity surrounding it, to keep people interested in it and to raise the numbers if we lose over a certain amount of people. Of course, it's also his responsibility to hide away any documents on the guild while making them accessible to anyone whose interested in looking at them, provided they have the clearance, naturally."

"Did you ever consider becoming one of the heads?"

Grey Fox shook her head. "It's not my style, too much responsibility and there's a lot of red tape that they have to deal with every day. I'm a bit of a rogue by comparison; it wouldn't set a good example… I was asked though, once. Queen wanted me to become her protégé, but I declined, poisons aren't my thing—too messy. Anyway, finally there's King. He's the head honcho of the guild; he oversees everything and says what goes and what doesn't. He used to be some army general or something but left after something bad happened, I'm not sure of the details; it's all a little vague. But Cane tells me that he's really edgy about it."

"How would Cane know?" Alex asked with a frown but Grey Fox ignored him and continued on with her little explanation of the Guild.

"That's the five guild heads and each one of them have a team behind them. Kings team are called the Spades, Queen's are called the Hearts, Jack's are the Clubs, Ace's team's called the Diamonds and Joker's team are just called the Wildcards. You've probably seen some of them; they don't look like they fit in here. King's lot are always aloof looking and Ace's team are always suspicious of everyone else and they never speak during these things to anyone but Ace. The other's seem to fit in most of the time though, especially the Wildcards, they don't seem to care at all about image." Grey Fox looked around, an approaching man caught her attention. "Oh," She told Alex, "Here's Joker now."

Joker was sauntering up to them leisurely with a huge grin on his face.

"How's it going?" He asked Grey Fox in an Cockney accent as he neared.  
"Not bad, Joker, what news?"

Joker laughed a strange laugh that sounded in between a titter and a chuckle. "You've been a very busy girl haven't you?" He asked good-naturedly.

"Naturally." She replied with a shrug.

Joker continued on. "You've got everyone talking about you—not to mention King is going crazy. Though perhaps you didn't pick the best time for this to happen…"

Grey Fox frowned. "Oh?" She asked, "What do you mean by that now?"

Joker shrugged with a coy expression. "You'll find out soon enough I'm sure. King wants to talk to you about that too."

"I didn't realise I'd become so popular."

"That wasn't the word I would have used…"

Grey Fox sighed. "Don't I know..."

"Well, I just thought I'd better give you the heads up, you know when you'll be standing in front of us, I'll have to act all badass on you."

Grey Fox nodded. "Thanks for that."

"So how's Anna keeping herself?" He asked, changing the conversation.

Grey Fox smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Oh come on, it's not like that—and you know it."

"You just appreciate her artistic abilities then?"

Joker looked indignant. "Of course. It's purely professional."

"Yeah well, she's too young for you."

Joker gave Grey Fox an exasperated look. Grey Fox just rolled her eyes with a sigh. "She was doing well, the last time I saw her. But that was almost a year ago now." She told him.

"Why leave it so long before contacting her?"

Grey Fox shook her head. "It's not like I haven't tried; last two times I contacted her all I got back was white noise."

Joker's face transformed into a frown. "I hope she's alright."

"She'll be fine," Grey Fox assured him, "She's with the others and she has an eye for keeping herself out of trouble, she's grand."

"I hope you're right." Joker muttered, "I wouldn't want to lose my bomb buddy." He looked over his shoulder at the arrival of someone else who was motioning for him to come over. Joker nodded to the man and turned back around to Grey Fox.

"It's time for me to go badass, see you later." He said as he turned.

Grey Fox nodded and watched him go.

"Are you in trouble for breaking into the bank?" Alex asked.

Grey Fox nodded, "I'm always in trouble for something, but obviously King wants to see me about something else as well, I can't imagine what though."

"Maybe he's got a job lined up for you?"

Grey Fox shook her head. "Doubt it, he never gives me work."

There was a moment of silence between them. Grey Fox seemed to have gone into her own little world, staring at a fixed space on the ground to her side with an absent look in her eyes. It wasn't until a man neared them that she blinked at focused her eyes. She looked at the man expectantly.

"You've been summoned." He told her with a gruff voice.

Grey Fox nodded and then motioned for Alex to follow her. They walked across the room towards a door at the opposite end that Alex had missed previously. It was odd that he had missed it, since it wasn't particularly camouflaged or anything but maybe the two big guards standing in front of it had been unconsciously noticed. After all, they seemed terribly familiar to him. The door was held open and he and Grey Fox went through it. It was shut promptly behind them.

Alex found himself in a long corridor with paintings of men and woman on either side. The red carpet was soft under his shoes as he followed Grey Fox's long stride.

Soon they reached another door, which Grey Fox herself opened and she briefly mentioned to Alex to close it after him. He did as he was told and when he turned back around, he realised where he was.

The room itself was big, though not nearly the same size as the one they had just been in. On the far side, there was a wall made entirely out of glass and Alex could see the city and all of its fantastical lights outside of it. It was strange to see tiny car lights in the distance and a poster for Calvin Klein on a building; it showed that people were continuing on with their everyday lives, when he was in a meeting with killers. But back to the room, it was very bare. The only furniture in it was a long desk with seats and people in them. In front of the desk was a wide-open space, where Grey Fox stood straight backed, facing them. Alex took his place by her side. There was a long silence and what seemed to be a staring competition between Grey Fox and a man who Alex guessed was King. He took that moment to look at the people. He had already met Ace, Queen and Joker and he could only assume the man in the middle was King so that meant the skinny man at the end of the table was Jack. He wasn't a very interesting looking person and was easy to forget about. Alex figured that it was an extreme advantage to him in this line of business. Jack appeared to be an average looking person in every respect of the word. And yet, there was still something about him that made Alex's spidey senses tingle. It was the face, Alex concluded, definitely the face. It was the kind of face that held a smile assuring everyone that he was their favourite uncle, while his eyes promised that he'd kill their whole family in front of them. He was a dangerous man and from what Grey Fox had told Alex about his job, he guessed Jack was well suited.

"You know why you've been summoned?" King asked in a loud booming voice that was alarming after the quiet.

Grey Fox, as cool as cucumber nodded. "I suppose I have a good idea."

"You suppose?" King asked in disbelief. "You suppose? Do you know the damage that you could have caused from the act alone, never mind the fact that it was the sloppiest performance I've ever seen. Any _rookie_ in there could have done a better job than you did. Your father may have founded this guild but don't think that because of that you are above out rules! What kind of mental illness do you have to think that targeting Evergreen Bank was a good idea?" King's voice became louder and louder the more he spoke and by the end of it, he was shouting.

"It was not _I_ who chose this." Grey Fox defended, her right brow had creased with agitation.

"Then who? Which one of your lot are stupid enough for that?"

This time Grey Fox smirked. "Not one of mine," She told King, "It was _your_ _spawn_ who came up with it."

King's brow furrowed for a second. "You mean…" He trailed off before his frustration and anger came crashing back. "Where is he?" He snarled.

With impeccable timing, Cane was pushed through the door by one of the guards. "I found him trying to sneak out of the party, sir." The guard said. Cane gave a sheepish grin as he tried to gather up his moulting dignity and stepped beside Grey Fox.

"Coward." She muttered to him.

"Just trying to save my neck." He whispered back.

"Too late." Grey Fox told him, masking it by speaking into her hand as she moved a strand of fallen hair away from her face.

"Leave." King told the guard who complied immediately. King turned to look at Cane, who gulped.

"It was _your_ idea to break into the bank?" He asked.

Cane scowled and shot Grey Fox a dark look. "Thanks, you rat." He said to her before addressing King. "Yeah."

"And why? What could have possessed you to do such a thing? And even then, why didn't you ask permission from the Guild? There wasn't even one thing that you did that was in any way clever."

"I dunno," Cane muttered, "I got loaded from it, that's something."

Both he and Grey Fox tried to hide their smirks. Alex was bemused to see how like school kids they were. In fact, he distinctly remembered two boys acting like that in front of the principle in Maths class a few months ago after they had been caught flicking papers at the substitute teacher.

"What was that?" King asked in a very dangerous voice that made Cane shut up.

"Nothing." He said solemnly.

King sighed a very long, weary sigh that came from somewhere deep within him. He looked defeated rather than threatening now. "You two aren't children any more. It's not like we can punish you and make you apologise, you're two adults. If either of you were anyone else, I'd have you punished; excommunicated from the Guild and banned from working anywhere near us again. But _you_ are my son," He said to Cane, "And _you_ are too damn important—especially now." He shook his head.

It was Grey Fox that spoke up next. "It needed to be done anyway." She told the heads of the guild. "If not when we had, later. There was more than just money that was being stored in that bank and frankly, it was dangerous for us to just keep it there. It's true that the plan didn't go as well as we had hoped…though I can't imagine why it didn't, but the end result was the same. My contacts made it sure that everything was hushed up and we got what we came for. We were never in any danger; you know I don't do unnecessary danger when I work. I may be reckless at times, but I am never stupid. You said that we are no longer children and you are right. But we haven't been children for a very long time so there is no need to treat us as such. I cannot comprehend what you thought you would achieve by calling us up here like delinquents but it has come to nothing. We did what we did because it was justified, because it was advantageous _and_ because it was safe. I don't know why Cane didn't think to tell you, but it doesn't matter now, it's in the past."

"Besides," Cane added, "You never let me do anything anyway."

Grey Fox rolled her eyes. "Yes, thanks for that, Cane."

"I agree with Grey Fox," Queen said, "No action should be taken."

Joker nodded, "I'll second that."

"Me too." Jack said quietly.

"Well I don't," Ace fought, "I say send them to the dogs, hand them over to the authorities—or better yet, have _her_ excommunicated."

King shook his head wearily, he wasn't as young as he used to be, he didn't have the energy for fighting like he used too. "You're out of order, Ace, and over-ruled." Once upon a time, King had hoped that Cane would take over, and he would be able to retire in comfort but that had clearly been nothing more than a fantasy. He looked to his son. Clearly, sending him to the army all those years ago had been a bad idea, it was there where he met Grey Fox and he hadn't been able to follow an order since then.

King nodded to himself. "Very well, next topic."

Grey Fox shifted her weight from her left foot to an even distribution. Now, this was what she was waiting for. This was what she had put up with all that mess for.

"Lately, we've received word from our sources that there has been a recent increase arms sales in the Middle East."

Grey Fox frowned. "That… is not uncommon. You know that, and what with the war and all—it's to be expected."

"That's what we thought at first too. But this has been going on for six months now, and the arms are not being brought into the Middle East, they're being taken out of it. Someone is selling guns _from_ the East and is selling them into the West, into America where they're being shipped out back to places like Iraq and Afghanistan to the American troops."

Grey Fox's frown deepened. "That doesn't make sense, why would someone do that?"

"Ace, this is your department, you continue." King told the head of information retrieval.

Ace got down to business, straightening out his papers and documents as he spoke. "We came to that conclusion ourselves, it didn't make sense to have an arms factory in a country only to have it shipped out to the countries enemy, so I did a little digging. I found that the arms originated from a group of factories scattered around. Some were in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and we found a few in Afghanistan as well. They all seemed to be connected to each other, so I sent in some of my men to infiltrate and spy on them. After just a few weeks, the reports told me that I had been right; they were all connected. But more than that, I found arms weren't the only things they were dealing with, practically anything you can find on the black market, could be found in those factories. I sent orders to my men to find out who the boss of all of this was and while I unfortunately lost contact with most of my spies, three of them reported back with these photographs of the boss." He held up photographs to which Alex could only see the white backs of them. "Apparently, the others that we lost contact with had been compromised, they're classified as missing, presumed dead."

"Show her the pictures." Joker said in a serious voice that made Grey Fox look at him in surprise.

Ace nodded and reached over to hand Grey Fox the pictures. Grey Fox took them and turned them over so that she could see them.

She turned white.

She just stared at the pictures in her hands. She knew that man, oh god she knew him. Cane noticed her look. "Fox, what's wrong? Are you okay, what's on those pic—" He stopped and bit his lip. "Oh." He said quietly.

At the sound of his voice, Grey Fox shook herself out of her little trance and pursed her lips while she flicked through the others. Alex managed to take a good look at the pictures. He figured that Grey Fox had to have known him for the reaction to be so startling because there seemed to be nothing amazing about the man in the photo. He was tall, a good few inches over the next tallest person in the picture, he had longish grey hair--though he wasn't old--that was tied neatly at the base of his neck. He had sunglasses on, so Alex couldn't see his eyes but even without it, he knew that this man was probably a killer. He certainly didn't look like a nice guy. He had bad skin that was clearly pock marked and he wore three gold chains around his neck. In the pictures he was wearing casual expensive looking clothes that were well suited for the climate, linen trousers and a half open shirt which allowed Alex to just about make out many scars running across his hairless chest. He was well built, this man, and, as Alex could see from a glimpse at one of the other photos he had no trouble with beating his workers up.

"So he's behind this?" Grey Fox asked after looking through the pictures thoroughly.

"At the very least he's involved, either way, its bad news for us."

"Do you know what he's trying to achieve? He's never been the patriotic kind and I'm sure that money isn't his motivator here."

King shook his head. "We were hoping you might know, after all, you know him better than anyone else."

Grey Fox shook her head; her eyes flickering back to the picture of him. "No, I haven't seen or heard from him in years, I thought he had gone off the map completely. This is… worrying."

"We've been looking into him, but we can't find anything about what he's doing."

"No, you wouldn't. He's too good to be tracked."

"So you don't think we can do it?" Ace asked.

Grey Fox shook her head again. "I doubt it. He's overly cautious when he works, its part of the reason he's still out there. Probably even killed anyone who knew him before he started this; it's the way he does things."

"But you do agree that he needs to be stopped?" King asked.

Grey Fox nodded. "Whatever he's up to, it's not going to be good for any of us."

"So then, you'll agree to do this?" King asked.

Grey Fox looked at him and without hesitation nodded. "Of course, I don't have any choice."

"I thought you said King wouldn't give you a job?" Alex asked.

They were on their way home, in the car. Grey Fox huffed and looked over at Alex. She had been previously staring into space out the window, contemplating everything that had happened tonight.

"This isn't a job, Alex, this is a duty." She told him.

Alex wasn't sure exactly why she considered it a duty but he knew she was economic with her answers at the best of times.

"So what happens now? Are we going to have to spend hours in some rotting old building researching this guy with the help of a hacker?"

"No need, I already know everything there is to know about him."

"Who is he?"

"A mad dog that needs to be put down. That's all that matters for the moment."

"So what are we going to do next? What's the first step?"

"First, we've got to pack our bags, Alex. We'll leave in the morning and we'll play it by ear from there."

"Where are we going?"

"Russia."

**A/N: Well, that's the end of this chapter. Next chapter is going to be quite a big one too, plot-wise that is. Again I want to thank all my supporters and I will promise to have the next chapter posted much, much quicker this time. Cheers!**


	12. Chapter 11

A/N: I know, I'm late, yeah yeah. But I'm here now (thank god) and hopefully I'll update sooner next time. (Very unlikely though, it seems all the good intentions in the world can't make me write the next chapters) still, I'm being hopeful.

**Just one or two things about this before you read;**

**1: I'm using quite a few dates in this and I can't quite remember what year Ark Angel was set in so from here on we're all going to assume its 2000 because that's the year 'Stormbreaker' was released and I've based all of the dates on that. **

**2: I've just seen the movie 'Stormbreaker' yesterday and am feeling very unoriginal in my creation of gadgets. Still, I would like to say that I am not changing it because it's still rockin' and I'm also too lazy.**

**3: Finally, I **_**might**_** have changed a few facts around to fit my story. I can't remember, it's been ages since I read any of the books.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy, it took ages to write. ******

Luggage, luggage, luggage.

Alex walked from one end of his bedroom to the other. Grey Fox had told him to pack… but what? Well that uncomfortable suit that Cane made him wear was _definitely_ not coming with him. He was sure that there was at least one suit shop in Russia and even if there wasn't, the next time he went out would be with runners and jeans.

In the end, the suit was left in the closet while anything he could run, jump, crawl, climb or swim in was shoved into a suitcase that Grey Fox had supplied. Half way through his attempt to close the suitcase by sitting on it, Cane came into the room; he looked at Alex for a moment, not expecting to find him in that position. He then handed Alex a package, telling him it came in the post for him. Alex took it and examined it for a moment, only opening it when Cane left the room. It was the first parcel that Alex had received since he came to New York so he wasn't going to share that special moment. In actual fact, Alex was baffled as to who would be sending him post. He hoped it was Jack—he missed her unbelievably—but that was unlikely.

Instead, when Alex opened the package, he grinned, recognising who sent it.

The letter read;

_Alex dear boy,_

_What a delight it is for me to have a chance to design something for you once again. My original orders were that I wasn't supposed to construct anything for you to use, but I had prepared a few ideas. I wasn't able to be quite as inventive as I'd have liked; Mrs. Jones assured me that there was no point. I hope you enjoy using them as much as I have making them._

_Smithers,_

_P.S This paper was especially designed so that you could swallow it if you need to—you probably should._

The writing changed.

_Dear Alex,_

_I hope this letter finds you well. I know that you were not willing to come on this mission initially and I must apologise for it. It was, however, necessary. I asked Smithers to provide some aid and I hope this will do. I cannot help you further in this mission; you will have to rely on your own wits from now on. _

_Be safe,_

_Mrs. Jones._

Alex quickly checked the back of the page to see if there was anything else written on it. There wasn't, so he quickly dropped the paper and excitedly opened the box to find his prize. The first item he picked up was an ipod. There was a post-it stuck on to it, he quickly read it. It mentioned that the ipod was fully functional and used to relieve boredom apart from when Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture was played—then it would act as an explosive device. The post-it informed Alex that when the song ended, the ipod would explode with the power of C4; the timer could be set from scrolling through the song. Alex turned on the ipod to find a selection of music from every genre, time frame and trend; obviously Smithers couldn't decide what Alex would like. He left the device on the bed and looked back into the package, it almost felt like one of those lucky bags Ian used to buy Alex when he was a kid. The next object Alex picked up seemed to be a black Nintendo DS. Again, a post-it gave Alex the details. The DS was a normal game consol that had a few things incorporated into it. First of all, the top and bottom of the stylus came off to reveal two basic lock picks, one on either side. The memory card was actually a USB stick and when the user went into the user settings and wrote in the personal message screen, "commI6." The DS turned into a communication device, provided the included earphones were plugged in. There was also a game included in the package, which seemed to have little use other than potential for Alex's entertainment. That was then put beside the ipod before he looked into the box again. Next was a pair of sunglasses. Again Alex was informed of its characteristics; it had night vision (which was frankly odd, after all, who would be wearing sunglasses at night) and it also had an infer-red option which showed the different areas of heat around him, just like in the programmes where the animal or person ends up being coloured in various colours, like red yellow, orange, green or blue. Finally, there was a middle sized seemingly led box in the bottom. There was not much of an explanation on the pink post-it apart from it saying that the box was completely invisible to metal detectors and on x-rays. With great curiosity, Alex opened the box and despite himself, he gasped. Even after everything, even after all the missions and the danger he had been through, the one thing MI6 had steadfastly refused to give him was a gun; he had been too young for a weapon like that, plain and simple. So why, Alex wondered as he reached into the box, was there a new and shiny handgun waiting for him to use inside? He picked it up, the gun felt heavy in his hand, it was unfamiliar and cold and was almost awkward. Alex had used guns before, mostly by accident or because they were the nearest things too him, but this was _his_, it belonged to _him_. To carry this gun would be to admit that he was prepared to inflict bodily harm on others….

Oh well.

He heard Grey Fox's voice in the distance, asking Cane if he was ready to go. Alex quickly hid his bounty as he heard the mercenary's footsteps coming toward the door and he tried to look natural as the door opened.

"We're leaving in ten." She told him, popping her head in before leaving just as quickly. Alex didn't even have to nod and she had disappeared down the hallway. Taking everything out of its hiding place, Alex packed them away as well, putting them all (except the gun), into a smaller backpack that he'd be able to carry onto the plane. When he was ready, after one final sweep around the room to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, Alex put the backpack on his back and dragged the suitcase out of the room and beside the front door. He met Cane on the way out, doing the same thing, but with a considerably smaller duffel bag.

"You're coming too?" Alex asked in surprise. Grey Fox had said that Cane would be gone as soon as they had finished that job in the bank. Admittedly, the job hadn't gone as either of them had planned, but that didn't explain why Cane was still around.

"Yeah, I've got my own business to deal with over there. Besides, it saves money." He told Alex with a shrug. He turned and then left. Cane's behaviour was a little…aloof. Which was odd, because Cane had a tendency to be quite friendly. Alex shook his head, but didn't have time to ponder the mysterious behaviour as Grey Fox appeared and after expressing her happiness at Alex's readiness, she told him that they'd better get a move on. Grey Fox grabbed her own bags and Cane came back. Grey Fox called Red. The hulk of a wolf trotted unhurriedly over to them and all together they left the apartment.

Alex was surprised.

Initially, he thought he was going to Newark airport. Instead he realised that they were going the opposite direction entirely. Then, he discovered that he wasn't going to be flying commercial. That was the next surprise. Together, it all led him to this current moment in time. Alex got out of the car along with Grey Fox, Cane and Red, and stood, looking at the plane. It was a private plan, like one of the ones he had been forced upon by Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones when they drugged him to come over here. This time, it seemed he was going to get the pleasure of seeing what a standard private jet looked like from the outside.

There was a man in a suit standing beside a black Mercedes. He had a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. Grey Fox walked towards him while Cane hung back. Alex followed Cane's suit. He found that was usually the best thing to do—he wasn't familiar enough to know what the proper etiquette was a lot of the time in situations like these and he had learned that however Cane acted, it was probably best for him to do the same. Somehow, Alex had been given a similar social standing as the man. He had no clue how that had happened, but it made his life much easier.

The man and Grey Fox started talking while Red hovered behind his master's feet.

"I'm not happy about this." He said, glancing at Alex.

Grey Fox nodded. "I know James, but I've got no choice about this, you know that."

James nodded. "Yeah, I do. Its lucky that the agency does too."

"They aren't stupid, they understand the threat all of this poses." Alex presumed that here, Grey Fox was talking about the mysterious grey haired man and the arms factories he was involved in.

"Hmm, you may be right, but you're still as disposable to them as I am." James warned.

Grey Fox sighed, "Yeah, yeah, I know; you've reminded me enough times already. Thanks for the plane, and the pilot?"

James nodded. "Is already ready inside. He's just carrying out all the final checks."

"Thank you James, I'll be off then. See you in a few weeks…probably." Grey Fox turned to leave but James started speaking again.

"Wait, I'm supposed to give you this." James handed Grey Fox a small device that Alex couldn't quite make out. The mercenary looked at James in surprise.

"They're keeping tabs on me?" She asked with the slightest hint of indignation in her voice.

James nodded. "You're to contact me every three days and report."

"And if I don't?" Grey Fox challenged with a look of annoyance on her face.

James shrugged. "Like I said; you're as disposable as I am."

Grey Fox nodded and took the device grudgingly. Annoying as it was, she knew James was right. He knew he was right too.

"If you _do_ need any assistance while you're away, just call me and I'll try to arrange something." James told her. He looked at Grey Fox and frowned. "I don't agree with tying your hands like this, but I have to follow orders. I know you understand."

Grey Fox nodded again. "Thanks James, I'll see you around."

"Later." He agreed as he got back into his car and reversed it back a little before driving away.

Grey Fox turned and walked over to Cane and Alex. She walked by them and started to get the bags out of the boot. Cane did the same and so did Alex.

"No wonder you got all of this arranged so quickly. I didn't think you'd go through him, though, I must admit." Cane said idly.

"Time is of the essence." Grey Fox said distractedly as she started carrying her bags towards the plane. Cane looked at Alex who looked back at him. "What?" Alex asked.

Cane shrugged and continued on. Moving towards the plane as well.

It only took a few minutes before all of the bags were on the plane and Alex himself was seated in one of the comfy chairs in the cabin. Red had lowered himself to the ground on the far side of the plane and Cane was looking through a small drinks cabinet down the back of the plane. Grey Fox was up the front talking to the pilot Alex had yet to see. Not that it mattered who the pilot was—once he could actually fly the plane, of course. So Alex was left to his own thoughts for a few moments, something that was a rarity these days. Ever since he had first come to live with Grey Fox and her associates, he had been occupied twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not that Grey Fox made him work all that much, but she was always doing something that required his attention. She had taught him a lot in the relatively short time he had been with her and he already knew that from thinking back to that conversation he had heard a while ago, that she would have liked for him to be her apprentice. Alex still wasn't so sure how he felt about that. He would be flattered and even tempted to take her up on that offer if she actually did ask him; there was a certain pace to this life that suited him. Maybe it was the fact that it was the opposite of MI6 that he found so appealing, but he certainly couldn't deny that he was having an interesting time—for the most part. Then again, Alex wanted to be normal. He wanted to be with Tom in school, copying his homework or having it copied and daydreaming about stupid things while he looked out the window his English teacher's room. But he was beginning to think that this would be an impossibility for him; he had been so involved with MI6 and its world that he was even starting to see possible terrorists where there was none, possible missions where he wasn't needed. Vaguely he wondered if that had been Mr. Blunts plan all along. Alex wouldn't put it past him, he was sure that it would seem perfectly reasonable to the man considering that he had recruited Alex in the first place and trained him with the SAS. Who does that, anyway? The simple answer was, apparently, MI6. So it was not so difficult to take the next few steps and say that Mr. Blunt had indeed desired for Alex to be their willing little agent. The thought made Alex scowl as anger built up inside of him from his very core. Why didn't they understand that he just wanted to be left alone? He almost growled when he heard Cane approach but quickly shook his head. No, this was unreasonable. He wasn't sure what had just brought on that flash of emotion but it would have been misdirected if he took it out on Cane. Alex decided in that moment that if he ever did have to make a choice between Grey Fox and MI6, either MI6 would have to start making changes, or he would be sticking put with her. It was funny that the whole 'killing people' thing didn't bother him quite as much anymore. But then, maybe that was because Alex realised that Grey Fox wasn't some crazed lunatic who killed people for pleasure. She was a professional who seemed not to be hired for that too much anyway.

The engine to the plan was turned on and Alex could feel the vibrations running up from the floor to his feet and legs. A few seconds later, Grey Fox appeared and sat down on the seat across from Alex. She strapped herself in with the seatbelt and told Alex to do the same.

"We're taking off in a few moments." She told him before giving out to Cane for not putting his own belt on. Cane rolled his eyes and made a sarcastic comment but did as he was told without any delay. They were all silent from then on as the plan began to move and then, after speeding down the runway, took off cleanly from the ground.

About twenty minutes after the plane had taken off, and long after they had all abandoned their seatbelts, Grey Fox looked over at Cane and motioned with a slight inclination of her head for him to leave. He nodded and got up, disappearing into the pilot's cabin. Alex almost pitied the poor faceless pilot; whenever Grey Fox sent him away, Cane became unbearably annoying. Back to the present though, Alex looked questioningly over at Grey Fox, wondering if she wanted him gone as well. He had half gotten out of his seat before Grey Fox shook her head and told him to sit. Alex sat.

"It's going to be very dangerous, Alex. The mission, I mean." She told him.

Alex frowned in confusion. "Um, okay." He said, not knowing what she expected of him. He felt like saying _well duh…_ but it didn't seem appropriate somehow. However, it seemed his initial reaction had been sufficient as Grey Fox nodded in response. She licked her lips as she thought of how she might phrase her next sentence.

"I trust you, Alex." She told him, "You have proven to me that I can and so I do. Trust is very important to me, but it must work both ways. I trust you, and I need you to trust me."

Alex was beginning to get suspicious of Grey Fox's behaviour. What was this about? "I do trust you." He said with slightly narrowed eyes. Was this some kind of test?

But if Grey Fox was keeping score, she was doing a very good impression of someone who wasn't listening. She kept on talking.

"We'll be going onto the battlefield soon, I fear," She continued on, "And when you go on the battlefield the people you take with you are family—no, closer than family—they are people you trust with your life because you put your life in their hands from the moment you reach the drop-off point. There must be a kind of compatibility between the team, a certain pre-existing knowledge of how your teammates will react in and to different circumstances. That is the mark of a good soldier, of a surviving veteran."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

Grey Fox's gaze met his. "You don't know me." She told him, "I know _you_, but you don't know me. How can you be expected to trust someone you don't know?" She asked, but Alex, feeling that it was a rhetorical question watched her mutely.

"I want to tell you who I am, Alex, before its too late and we both regret it."

Alex regarded her for a moment. Now this time he was almost sure that he was supposed to react. "Okay, then." He said simply, but it was exactly the answer that Grey Fox required of him. She nodded with a sense of inward satisfaction. She began her story.

"My name is Katia Jaeger, though I've always been called Kit. I was born in Kursk, in Russia in 1977. That makes me twenty-three since last December. My family were the nearest thing to nobility since the Iron Curtain fell down across Europe after the Second World War. Both of my parents were very wealthy and powerful people in Russia, though neither of them had a complete Soviet lineage. My mother was a Kurd. I believe she was born in Syria, but of that, I am not certain. She was a very famous militant for the Kurdistan forces the Peshmerga. She was a sniper who created the women's sniper division of the "Pesmerge Force for Women". My mother single-handedly created and developed the unit and she proved that she and her soldiers were a force not to be reckoned with. She was a very talented woman, my mother…but she was dangerous. Her unit grew too powerful and with it, my mother's arrogance. By the time she was twenty-five she defected from the army and became an assassin for the Palestinian government. She abandoned the name "Layla Shah" and adopted a new alias. She called herself simply "Mata". I assume it was after the femme fatale Mata Hari from World War Two, but who knew her mind? Whatever the case, Mata fell out with her employers—either that or she had found someone who was willing to pay a greater price for her services; my mother was not a loyal woman, but then, assassins tend not to be. The first time she met my father was on the battlefield in South America, they were on different sides of the fence. They both came out of it relatively unharmed but my mother marked my father, giving him a small scar on his torso. Supposedly, when my mother 'marked' someone, his or her days were numbered. My father seemed to be the only exception to this; a year after their first encounter, he asked her to marry him. It was then that they moved to Kursk where my mother gave birth to three children and lived until 1986 when she was shot by another sniper. But I'll get to that later.

"My father's life was a much more difficult one. He was born in Vietnam, though neither parent was from there. My father was a mix; half Russian, half German. His father was the German, who left him with nothing but the name Jaeger—the German word for hunter. Both of his parents died when he was still a young child. They were murdered, caught up in a war between the army and rebels. They were probably mistaken for military and killed as soon as they were seen; I don't know the details. But I do know that he was found by an army official after the incident, who brought him back with him to the army. He was trained and became a child soldier, fighting across the world to where ever he was shipped. He was a deadly hunter, who used to lure his enemies to him by the look of his innocence. He was such a successful killer that he was given the name Andrey Jaeger, translated into English it means "man hunter". My father stayed in his unit until he was twelve when he had to fight against a member of the mercenary group "The Black Dogs". The man was called Garm, which was a figure from Norse mythology, my father impressed the mercenary and he took him back to America with him. He adopted him, took him under his wing and taught him everything he knew. The old man died just a few years ago, I met him once—can't say I like him, he got a bit grumpy in his old age, apparently. But that's not important, they went their separate ways after my father turned seventeen where he joined the U.S Marines for three years. After that he spent some time on his own, freelancing. He was then picked to lead a team of specialists for a governmental operation, and he spent a few months surviving through every kind of hellish battlefield, you can think of. It was in the last of his missions that he met my mother in South America. After he stopped working for the government, my father met up with King and together they created the mercenary's guild. You know the rest from there; he married my mother and moved to Kursk. After that, he worked with groups—mostly. He did some work with MI6 and once, he worked with Scorpia, though not by his own choice; my mother convinced him to do it. He was shot and killed in 1985."

"Both of your parents were shot? And within a year of each other?" Alex asked, surprised. It sounded a bit too coincidental for it to be by chance. But Grey Fox nodded her head emotionlessly; as if it had not happened to her own family but she was just stating the facts.

"As I said, I was born in 1977. It was on my eighth birthday when my father died. He had taken me to the zoo—I had never been before. He bought me a blue balloon. I loved my father very much, Alex. I think I was his favourite. I had two older brothers as well but they favoured my mother and my father didn't get on quite as well with them. He used to say that they were completely different animals to him and me—but I only understood what he'd meant much later on. I'm getting sidetracked… but it was the reason why it was just him and me that day. Because of my family's status within the area, we had a big house; it was practically a mansion on a large estate. On our way back, we walked up the driveway to the house; we had gotten the bus out to the zoo and had walked from the stop. Half way up the drive my father stopped and told me that I had to listen carefully. I did. He took me by the shoulders and gave me small leather bag from his coat pocket. He put it into my hand and told me to look after the contents with my life. I promised I would. Then he told me that he loved me and that he was sorry for me. I didn't know what he meant, but I didn't have time to think about it. Then he told me to run. I didn't. I should have…"

Grey Fox trailed off for a moment, her eyes becoming distant and sad. She licked her lips.

"…It was the first time I had ever seen someone killed. Living with people such as my parents, I had been raised to the sound of gunshots. My father taught me how to use a gun from the time I was able to hold one—and before that, I had been instructed with knives. He was a cautious man; aware of his family's vulnerability and believed in his own mortality. My mother never did. The only things she believed in were money and herself. She was arrogant; she only carried one bullet in her PSG1 rifle when she shot my father."

"What?" Alex asked shocked. Grey Fox's mother had killed her father? Had he heard that right? Apparently so, because Grey Fox rolled her eyes and shushed him by raising her hand.

"Don't worry, it wasn't meant for him." She told him in an exasperated voice, "She missed. My father pushed me out of the bullet's path just in time and he got caught. I had always been the target; my father was just a victim. My mother was sick, you see, in her head," Grey Fox told Alex, tapping her temple, "She loved my father—very much and hated me with the same passion. I think, perhaps, it was jealousy. She was afraid that he would care for me more than her? I don't know, she was crazy; who knows the workings of an insane mind?

"After she had realised what she had done, my mother shrieked like a she-devil. The air was icy and it bounced off of the ground and reverberated around the area. It was terrifying. As my father fell to the ground, pieces of his skull littered around him in a puddle of blood on the snow, I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could. I ran until I could no longer run and I wore myself out completely. Even then, I kept moving just so I wouldn't have to think about what had happened. My mind was in a swirl—I didn't know what to do. My father was dead, my mother was his killer and there was no way my brothers would help me. I was lost. But I had also been prepared for something like that, as I said; my father was a cautious man. He had told me to go to the nearest safe place where any of his comrades were. I realised this would be my only means for survival; Russia in the winter is so cold that to sleep on the streets would cause death—or at least serious frostbite. So I sought out the only man I knew in the area that my father trusted openly. My house was a few kilometres outside of the city so I had to hurry to get there before night fell and the temperatures dropped even more. Not to mention before the streets got dangerous. Anyway, I arrived on the doorstep, covered in dirt and my father's blood and suffering from a mild case of hypothermia. He was a good man, my father's friend, a very good man. He was a spy for MI6, but he and my father had worked together quite a few times. They knew each other as well as a man can know another man in this life. I had met him once before, so he recognised me immediately. He took me in and I told him what happened. He was horrified. I can't blame him, what happened was… unnatural. He promised that he'd take care of me though. He rang up MI6 and told them the situation. He wanted to bring me back to London with him, to adopt me, or at least look after me for a while; he and his wife were trying for a child, so what was one more? But Alan Blunt would not have it. He ordered that the agent stay in Russia until he was called back. Of course, what could the man do but comply? Still, he kept his word. He looked after me like a father, cooking, cleaning, and even taking time to teach me some schoolwork. Still, that was not what I wanted, what I needed. What I required was the knowledge of how to survive. I wanted to know how to hunt, how to live, how kill. I wanted him to train me as an apprentice. I asked him twice every day for a whole month. Each time he refused blatantly. At the end of the month he asked me why I would want to. Naturally, I had to tell him the truth. I had to tell him exactly what kind of animal my mother was; she would not rest until I was dead. She would hunt me down and kill me like I was nothing but a bug. I didn't want to learn how to kill for revenge; I needed to learn for survival. He still refused me that day. It took another two weeks before he agreed to it, but he did in the end. He spent almost a year training me, though I will admit, he was not always there. Turned out that my mentor did not always follow the rules. His mission in Russia was nothing more than to lay low and be on call. On occasion, he went away for the weekend to visit his wife.

"Seven and a half months later, the order came through for my teacher to pack up his bags and get on the next flight to London. He was going to take me with him despite his superiors order, and I was going to go with him too. But it did not turn out that way. The evening before the flight, I stole a rifle from the agent's collection and snuck away back to my old house. My mother wasn't in. That suited me fine. I went to the same place where she had gone the day she killed my father and I waited. By that time, I had gotten a certain amount of temperature training, my body was getting used to cold and hot temperatures. So I just waited, even after it started snowing and midnight came round, until eventually, a car drove up the drive. It parked in front of the house and she got out with two men I had never seen before. She was drunk; she made it easy on me. I aimed and shot. She died instantly, it was a clean kill."

"You shot your own mother?" Alex asked in horror. "How could you?"

"Yes I did. I do not regret it and I never will. My father died so that I could live. He sacrificed his life for me. If my mother were left alive, she would have found me and killed me. I could not let his sacrifice be for nothing—it would be a wasted life. So I took the pre-emptive strike. Don't worry, Alex, I have already atoned for my sins. That very night, I received my punishment. After I committed the act, I ran. Even though I was a good runner, I was carrying the gun and for a child, guns are extremely heavy. The two men that were with my mother caught me easily. They were surprised that _I_ was the killer—so surprised that they didn't believe I did it at first. But of course, they figured it out and dragged me back to their car. It turned out that both men were from a Special Ops group. I was now an orphan and there was no one who would miss me. I thought I was dead. I _believed_ they were going to kill me. But they didn't. I was taken away. They put me into the children's unit of the army. By the time I killed my mother, I was nine, which means I spent three years in the army. I went up the ranks quickly, I was commander of my own platoon within a year. The life expectancy of the children was usually about six months to a year. I survived three times that and my kill count was so high that everyone knew it couldn't have been because of weaselling my way out of fighting. So a few weeks after I turned twelve, I was pulled out of the barracks in the middle of the night. I was transported hundreds of kilometres away and no one would answer my questions, they wouldn't even talk to me. I had heard about things like that happening; abductions in the middle of the night, though it had always been because the soldier was uncooperative, or doing something that was not permitted. I could not understand why they had brought me out in the middle of the night. I could only assume it was to kill me. Turns out I was wrong. I was dropped off to a military base in the countryside. It was there that I met the man who caught me the night I shot my mother. I discovered that he was the general of a covert experiment and that I was first pick to play a leading role in it. He had been watching me, carefully monitoring my progress since I began and he decided that I was ready to be taken in.

"It was called the _'Les Enfants Terriblés' _Operation—The Terrible Children. I was only one of them. There were six of us in total; myself, another Russian, a Slovak, an Austrian girl, a Danish boy and a German. Since we could not communicate in each other's languages, it was decided that we would speak in English. And since we were all beginning a new life, we all changed our names. We called each other the names from the book 'Anna Kerenina'. I was given the name Kitty, but I don't think they knew how close my real name was at the time, then there was Kostya, Stiva, Anna, Nicholai and finally, little Seryozha. We were all hand picked by the General for our abilities. I was picked because of my all round skills and my capabilities as the team's leader. Kostya was picked to be the second in command, he was similar to me, but I was known to be somewhat more 'aggressive' than him. He was Russian as well, and only two months younger than me. Stiva was the Slovak; and at eleven, he was the most trigger-happy person I've ever known. He had the softest blue eyes I had ever seen, but he was just as deadly as any of us; he could shoot the eyes out of a squirrel from one hundred metres away with a revolver if he wanted. His aim was flawless. Then there was Anna. Anna was pretty little thing; she was quiet, very pleasant tempered. She was from Austria, Vienna to be exact. She was the third eldest at the age of ten. Anna used to draw pictures and read books and would hum softly before going asleep; she was that sort of person. Then again, she was also the sort of person who wasn't above blowing people up in their beds. She had gotten her hands on bombs, some time before she was chosen. She used them to blow up a whole hanger in an attempt to escape. Later, it turned out that she had sort of a knack for bombs and she used her creativity to create them. She was tutored, and picked for the team because of this prowess. Nicholai was also ten, though he had just turned. He was very dark, dark hair; dark eyes and he rarely spoke unless it was absolutely necessary. He was our sniper. His skills could beat that of any adult. He had been taken from his parents in Denmark a year previously. Finally, there was Seryozha. Little Seryozha was my favourite. He was the youngest on the team at the tender age of seven—much too young to be on any battlefield. He wasn't even a fighter, he was too young to hold a gun, and too soft to feel apathy to the death around him. But he was necessary for our more covert operations; while he was nothing to write home about physically—not then, at least—our little German was practically a god when it came to anything with wires or circuits in it. The child had a creepy gift that had caught the attention of our superiors and he had been taken forcefully from his family back in Cologne.

"That was our team. And we were demons on the battlefield. We were infamous across the whole world for our success rate and our ferocity during missions. I found Red one day in the beginning and we were allowed to keep him. We became known as the wolf pack—we had no rules, no limits; the only code we followed was that we would never abandon one of our own. And we didn't. To this day, the only thing I value is loyalty. For it to be broken is, in my eyes, punishable by death. We all believed that and we were strong because of it. We became close over the years, closer than siblings. Even now, though I don't often contact them, I _could_ call any of them up and tell them to come to me, and any or all of them would come immediately and without question, just as I would do for them. A bond that is stronger than even that of twins joins us; the bond of survival—it is the strongest one in this world.

"We fought together, lived together and stayed together for five years until I turned fifteen. The program was shut down due to an information leak and we were set free. Most of us were orphans and had no place to go to, but I tried to get Seryozha and Nicholai back to their families. Nicholai came back to us within three weeks of going home, he was miserable with his family; they had expected him to be the same as they remembered, but he was broken by the wars we had been in and haunted by the death he had seen. His family disowned him…or he disowned them, I'm not sure. Seryozha too did not work out with his old family. He lasted a little longer with them, but that was because I made him, I would not take him back at first. I wanted him to be with his family so badly. But it was not to be. He had been taken from his family when he was too young. He had forgotten practically everything about them—about anything before the army. He screamed at night and huddled in a corner during the day. When I went to visit him two months later, he begged me to take him back. I understood then what I had done; I had abandoned him, left him alone with strangers and he was by himself, without his pack. I took him back with me then.

"We were all then sent to America by the higher powers who had initially thought up the idea of _Les Enfants Terribles_. They may have made monsters out of children but I at least they took care of the mess they had made. We all spent the next six months recuperating, months that were spent with psychoanalytic and IQ tests, along with mental and physical trials. At the end of it, we were not deemed fit to be reintroduced to 'normal' society. We were supposed to rot away in a secure facility, safe from the prying eyes of the public and of the media."

"You're not there now, what happened?" Alex asked with real interest.

"We made a deal. If we promised to stay in touch and report to them once every few months, they would let us make our own way in the world. In return, we would work for them if they ever needed it and before we leave any country, we have to notify them. The man you saw earlier was an agent for it. He's the one who I call anytime I have to contact them. James is a good man, and even though I've always despised having to commit to these people, I like him. He's a different sort to the usual type that gets employed there. He doesn't know the full story, he thinks I am disposable like he is. But that's not the case, I'm just not supposed to tell him, so I don't. Anyway, I've gone off the point. Back to then, after we left the facility, we were sent to the Middle East on a mission. It was there that we gained another member to our group. His codename was Khalid. We called him Jack. He was just another part of the mission to me initially. In fact, I hated him; he was loud, never serious and he _could not_ take orders. He and I fought like animals at first. He would question all of my commands and would never work with the team, often going on without us into dangerous situations that probably should have gotten us killed. He had his own problems, I suppose—he had no one to count on and had to survive on his own, not that I could see that back then. But by the end of it, he proved himself to me, to us. We were on a mission, still in the Middle East. For once, he decided to stick to my plan and follow my lead. The mission was a complete success but when we went to leave, we were ambushed by a group of armed men. Our escape route was blocked and we didn't know if we could find a way out. Jack told us to go on, to retrace our steps and see if we could find a way out. He would keep the men back. To do that would have killed him; you can only get so lucky in a shoot out when you're on you own. But the pack never left one of their own behind, it just wasn't our way. Loyalty is the only thing we've ever believed in. That was the only thing that mattered to us; we didn't fight for ideals or out of obedience to our superiors, we fought for each other. That was what made us different to all the other kids that were destroyed by war. Jack showed loyalty towards us, and so he had become a part of the pack. We couldn't leave him. And we didn't. We fought our way through, most of us received minor injuries; I myself was shot in the leg and Nicholai was left with a scar on his cheek from where a bullet grazed it. But we got through, we survived as we always did and when we returned to home base, we decided to leave the Middle East. We requested that Jack joined our group permanently and he agreed to it. By then, we were good friends. Some time later, when we went to work with the American army, we were sent to Peru. There, we worked to stop the disturbance of the sectarian violence in the mountains. We met Cane there for the first time, and for a while we all worked together until he was sent home for illegally smuggling alcohol to the soldiers and to us. A little while later, we put an end to the fighting but before we could leave and return home, we were given word that there was a group in Brazil that required our expertise. So we were sent to the jungle where there were turf wars between drug barons that were getting innocent people involved. We met up with the group we were to be working with. It turned out, they were MI6—not that they told us. They were under the directives of Alan Blunt; again, I wasn't aware of it. We all spent three weeks together, it was a messy situation, which required a lot more delicacy than we usually had to deal with. It was there that Jack came into his own. He opened discussions between rivalling villages when we weren't working and then when we were, he was just as adept as any of the spies that were working with us. He infiltrated the drug lords' companies and was one of the only ones not to be uncovered and killed. When the time came to move in…it was messy. There was _a lot_ of violence, a lot of death. We were in a dire situation and we needed all the help we could get. It was then we found out that they were agents for the MI6. They told us that they could call for back up, that if we could set up a base and guard it, we would be able to wait it out and survive through it. They called and at the other end of the radio, Alan Blunt agreed to it. We just had to wait, to hold fort and survive.

"We waited. And waited, and waited some more. But the back up never came. Night turned to day and the sun began to set again and still no back up. We spent the whole time trying to fend off the hoards of the drug barren's men who kept coming back with heavier arms. The men called their superiors again after forty-two hours of waiting. And we finally were told that back up wouldn't come, that they couldn't afford to send more men down into a hopeless situation. And so, we were left to die. In the end, we figured we should all just go out, guns blazing. All but one of the MI6 men was killed. Luckily, we all made it out—but just by the grace of some god. The remaining MI6 agent was named Cid Armstrong. He was horrified by what had happened and he admired our loyalty. We asked him to join us, but he was injured in the battle and got gangrene, we had to amputate his leg. After that he practically retired from fieldwork but he kept in the circle. He never went back to MI6 anyway, I think he lives in Nevada now. About a year ago he did work for me but I haven't heard from him since.

"Anyway, by the time I turned seventeen, we all returned from South America where we set into our normal routine of everyday life. I insisted that Seryozha went to school, even though he hated it, I wanted him to experience normal life. It's been a constant goal of mine to get him to leave this life, but to no luck. The rest of us all got normal, everyday jobs. Not that there was anything particularly good out there. Anyway, during that time, Jack and I became… involved. We started going out. I really loved him, you know. It was the first time I had ever felt like that about anyone. Not that it really matters. We spent three years doing small time stuff, the occasional mission but it was quiet enough. I had a revelation during that time. We had survived purely because we had each other, we were a unit, but there were so many children that were left alone after they had experienced war. Even more who had been left to die on a field in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to stop that. I travelled to and fro from South America and other countries where I had met child soldiers. I spent a lot of time helping them to get away from their platoons and to shut down any organisations that used children as warriors. It was then that I started taking in apprentices. Mia was my first one, she chose to stay with me, but I have had many others. I think I made a difference to some people's lives. It was the first time I had done something selfless for anyone outside of the pack. That made me feel good about myself. I was happy. For the first time in my life, I was content with my circumstances; I wasn't bitter about what had happened to us, and I wasn't in fear for my life for any reason. Suddenly, I found that life was good. But these things don't last. They never do."

"What happened?" Alex asked.

Grey Fox let out a long weary sigh. "I got sick." She said miserably with her eyes averted. "It ruined everything. I had to move to a facility in France where a group of some of the best doctors in the world looked after me. It took them weeks to figure out what was wrong with me. Turns out, that I am highly allergic to gunpowder. Ironic, isn't it? Well, back when I was much younger, I had got shot in the chest. The field medic had patched me up as well as he could—he removed the bullet and drained the blood from my right lung and that should have been the end of it. But because the bullet I was shot with was old, it left traces of gunpowder where it had been lodged. The traces were too small for them to take an immediate effect, and too big for them not to be a problem. Over the years, my body became less and less tolerant to the alien substance and it began to reject it. There was nothing they could do, I was told I was dying of allergies." Grey Fox laughed bitterly, "To think that I'm going to die like that, it's ridiculous… Anyway, after that, when they told me nothing could be done, I returned to America. I told the pack what had happened and ordered them to continue on without me; they had been doing missions in my absence, you see. Jack stayed with me for a lot of the time, but he went away sometimes too. He no longer worked with the pack, but was heavily involved in peace talks between different nomad clans in the Middle East. I stayed in New York and began organising things with Hawk. After that, the pack seemed to just… grow apart. I haven't really talked to them in over a year, they keep themselves busy—which is good. Jack was with me until about six months ago, when he went MIA. He's presumed dead at this point, but I didn't want to give up on him, I've been looking for him since he left."

"Was that who was on the picture, the day that Mr. Blunt asked you to teach me?" Alex asked.

Grey Fox shook. "That information was useless, it wasn't even him in the picture. It was just some guy that looked like him. I don't think Alan Blunt purposely did it, but I've never seen that guy in my life."

There was quiet for a moment. Alex thought about that for a second and then frowned.

"But, if you knew it wasn't him…why did you agree to take me on? I thought that was the deciding factor so if it wasn't, what was?"

Considering that Grey Fox had decided to tell him the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Alex was surprised to see that the mercenary was being particularly hesitant. This made Alex scowl in suspicion. He had figured that most of his questions had been answered and that Grey Fox had been fairly truthful to him most of the time while they had been together. But apparently not. Apparently, there was something big that Grey Fox had decided not to let him in on.

She sighed. "Remember the night when we robbed the bank?" She asked.

Alex nodded.

"Well…" She said slowly enough for Alex, whose mind was now racing to think back to that very night. All he could think about was what little she had told him about his dad. And suddenly, with a flash of inspiration, he knew without a doubt, the reason for Grey Fox's hesitancy.

"It's about my dad, isn't it?" He asked her in a dark voice. He could just about feel the anger rise up from the inside. Apparently, so could Grey Fox, because she immediately changed her stance from doubtful and uncertain to defensive and pleading.

"Yeah, it is."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you lie to me?"

"How could I have told you the truth back then? Before a job? You would have been distracted—and anyway, there wasn't enough time to tell you, if I _had_ gone out and told you I would have had to explain everything or you wouldn't have understood it."

"Understood what?" Alex demanded with his voice rising.

"That your father was…" She trailed off. With a huff, she tried a different approach. "Remember I told you about my mentor back in Russia?"

Alex's eyes widened. "No." He whispered. "That was my dad?"

"He was a good man, Alex." She told him before Alex could get any ideas, "A very good man. It's because of him that I'm alive today."

"He taught a kid how to kill…how many children did he teach?"

Grey Fox shook his head. "Just me. And only after I hounded him. He didn't want to Alex. But he knew it was the only way. He gave me a fighting chance. I owe him everything. When I met you in Australia, it was completely by chance. I had picked up a radio signal from MI6, telling some ship that you would be landing near them. They said your name was Alex Rider and that shocked me. I quickly pulled up a few files on you from the MI6 database and found out that you were working for them. I found what they had done to you. I never got to repay your father and in this life, a debt is a worse thing to have then a death sentence. It goes against our rules, our way of life. It was my own fault what had happened to me. If I hadn't demanded my revenge, John Rider would have taken me back to England. We could have been brother and sister." She told him with a grin. "So your father was not responsible for anything that happened to me. He only did what was best for me."

"It still doesn't make it right…" Alex muttered.

Grey Fox, strangely enough, agreed with him. "No. But neither is it right to make a fourteen year old boy save the world. Or to leave a whole platoon of men in a jungle in South America where they're slaughtered off one by one. It's the world we live in. We have to get used to it. All anyone can do is make a tricky decision in a tricky situation."

Alex nodded. He wasn't happy about what he learned concerning his dad, but it seemed like it was the truth. "So that's why you took me on?" He asked but it wasn't really a question.

"Yes, initially. I also wanted to know you. To see what John Rider's son was like was too much of a temptation. I wanted to see how like him you really were. You didn't let me down either." She chuckled. "But you surprised me also. You are very different to him as well; sometimes I think you could not possibly be related. But then I look at you and no one can deny that you are his blood." Grey Fox quietened for a moment. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Alex. Honestly, I panicked when you asked me. I wasn't expecting you to do it."

Alex shrugged. "It's okay, I supposed." He told her. Grey Fox looked relieved.

"That's good." She said with a sigh, "Since we're getting it all out of the way now, do you have any questions you want to ask me about anything?"

Alex began to shake his head, but stopped and reconsidered. "Tell me about what we're going to do. Tell me about that grey haired man."

Grey Fox shrugged. "I was going to tell you anyway, but now is as good a time as ever. The man in that picture is known as Jackal. He does every amoral thing under the sun. He's mostly an assassin but he has a hand in everything. Obviously, in arms now. We've butted heads for years, we've engaged in battles that left either one of us or both of us near death. His real name is Levka Jaeger; he's my eldest brother. My family is _very_ messed up; none of us can stand each other. The mission isn't a set one. My only objective is to stop him, kill him preferably, and find out what exactly he's doing and how much of it he's completed. That's it. In theory, it's quite a simple one. The only thing I'm afraid of is that he'll be waiting for us."

"And why are we going to Russia?"

"To get information on him and to pick up a few allies. Anything else?"

Alex shook his head. "Not at the moment."

"Alright. In that case, I need you to listen to me carefully. Okay?"

"Sure. Why?"

"Before we go to Russia, we're going to stop over in London, we have to refuel in Heathrow airport. I've told you everything about myself because I trust you. I like you, Alex. But once we get to Heathrow, you're going to have to make a choice; either you can stay with me and we'll continue on with our mission, or you can go home. You'll be free to leave and I won't stop you; I trust that you won't tell MI6 what I have told you. But if you do choose to leave I have a feeling that it will be goodbye for good. The choice is yours; I really am fond of you and I would take you anywhere, but only if you were completely with me. I'm not a tyrant, I don't want anyone who doesn't want this."

"I uh…" Alex started to say, but was stopped by Grey Fox's hand.

"I don't need you to make up your mind just yet. You have at least another four hours before we land. Don't worry, Alex, I won't think any less of you if you choose to leave."

"Okay."

"Good. But just so you know, Alex; I'm not a good person. I have killed people and I have tortured them. I've caused pain to countless people; I've ruined families and destroyed whole communities. At the end of the day, Alex, we're the bad guys. MI6 may do questionable things, but _we are_ the bad ones. Don't ever forget that, Alex, if you do, you'll be no better then the people who killed your parents. Honestly, I think you should go back to MI6…but I hope you won't. Tell me what you think when you're ready. Until then, I'm going to get some sleep."

When she finished speaking, Grey Fox stood up and moved to the other side of the plane where there was more of a lounging chair. Grey Fox collapsed onto it and drew herself into herself and closed her eyes. Red stood up from the back and plodded himself down beside the chair, ever the loyal guard. Alex shook his head and sighed. What would he pick? Alan Blunt? Or Grey Fox? But he never got to truly muse over it, in the end, because despite what he thought, he was extremely tired and he fell asleep.

He was woken up by Cane gently shaking his shoulders. "Yo, kid, wake up."

Alex groaned and then blinked in surprise. He hadn't realised he had even fell asleep. He sat up straight and rubbed his eyes. Cane stepped away from him and gave him some space.

"So, what'll it be?" Grey Fox asked to his side. Alex turned and was about to speak when he got a surprise.

The look of Grey Fox's face startled him into silence. For the first time since he had met her. Grey Fox had no barriers up. Her face showed completely unchecked expression and while it wasn't that she was being completely expressive, she had never looked more vulnerable since Alex had met her.

Alex opened his mouth, "I…" He said slowly. There was no more time for thinking, no more time to consider the pros and cons. Alex looked at Grey Fox and then he caught a glimpse of the outside world through the window. He was on English soil, he was home.

"Well?" Cane asked in suspense.

Surprisingly, Grey Fox didn't say a word, it was as if she knew he had seen his country and felt the pull to return home. Again, for the first time since he had met her, Grey Fox did something else; she looked defeated.

Alex shook his head and opened his mouth to give his final answer.

Okay guys, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it. It's a bit of a cliffie, I know, but what the hell, I'll try and write the next chapter quickly. Tell me what you think.


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